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One thing that isn’t often spoken about is how hard it is for men to approach women with romantic intent. It’s actually one of the hardest things we ever have to do and that’s the reason why the vast majority of us only ever do it while drunk and specially defined scenarios like a bar or a club. Well I don’t want to be that way anymore and have decided to get over this fear once and for all so to that end I’ll be approaching 2 women every day for 50 days and writing about what happens. And just so we’re clear; this isn’t about ‘getting laid’; it’s about breaking through my personal limitations and learning to become a much stronger man. When a guy approaches a girl he doesn’t know, every one of his insecurities are shoved right into his face in technicolour HD and it’s in that moment that he really finds out what he’s made of. It’s time to find out what I’m made of. Let’s do this. See the whole challenge here. Day 34 – woman number 1 – Maera Hello humans. Before I get started let me please say once again that if you’re a secret fan of my blog then I definitely want to know who you are, how you found me, and what you get from following me, so please get in touch @ [email protected]. Yo! What it do, peeps? What’s the crack, Jack? How’s the flow, Flo? Tis I, Ciaran and I have another 2 sets of approaches to tell you about today. Woman number 1 was a Middle Eastern beauty who was walking towards me as I headed to the Google campus this morning. I saw her as she walked by, ran back, looked her deep in the eyes and said ‘Hey, I’m sorry for the interruption, but I have to let you know that you look absolutely incredible!’ When I said that, her eyes lit up and she smiled from ear to ear. I think I even heard a giggle too. Here’s what happened next: HER: Thank you! Thank you so much! You make me so happy! ME: No, thank you for looking so amazing! HER: (laughing) That is such a wonderful thing to say! ME: So what’s your name? HER: My name is Maera. ME: And you’re not from here, are you? HER: No, I’m from Turkey, I have been here for 1 year. ME: Let’s have a coffee, like right now. HER: I am sorry but I cannot. I am on my way to the art shop and I also have partner. ME: No worries, Maera. Take it easy and have a great day! HER: Goodbye and thank you. You make me so happy. After that, I left the lovely Maera to carry on about her business in the way that only she can; and continued my pilgrimage to the Google campus. This was when I bumped into Kayla. Woman number 2 – Kayla Kayla was an Australian fitness chick who looked like one of those CrossFit athletes you see online. In any event, she literally leapt out of a coffee shop and skipped up the road in my direction so I stopped her and told her she looked amazing. She looked back, smiled and laughed and before long we ended up in a chat about who the hell we both were and why the hell we’d moved to London. She’d moved for the hell of it and to try something new and I moved to find fame and fortune (still working on both). Good old Kayla was a bubbly soul with a great energy about her and was on her way to meet a friend to view a new property. We walked and talked and I asked for her number so she asked me for mine. I then told her that we both knew that if I gave her my number, her innate feminine nature would ensure that I’d never hear from her again; and she laughed and said ‘Well there’s a better chance of it happening then if you don’t!’ I then asked for her Facebook and she asked for my Facebook name. I told her that I was a big boy who could handle a no and she said ‘But this isn’t a no! It’s more of a maybe!’ In any event, I told her how to find me and split the scene to get my day started, knowing I’d never hear from her again. Thoughts I’ll tell you one thing I’m definitely noticing as I do this challenge, the ratio of negative responses is really falling. At some point in the first couple days I had a woman look me in the eye and bluntly say ‘Why on earth would you want to talk to me?’ or words to that effect, but that almost never happens today. As I’m becoming more comfortable approaching it seems that women are becoming more agreeable to talking to me. Also, I’m realising that logistics play a huge role in this stuff too. Take Kayla for instance; she genuinely liked me but was on her way somewhere and as a result didn’t have much time to talking to me and hence feel comfortable enough to pass on her information. Some other women would have done in that time period but not her. She just needed more time which simply wasn’t available. I’m also noticing that there’s different reasons why a woman will or will not give you her number and often even though she likes you she’ll still say no. At this stage of the challenge, I can confidently say with no ego that if we’d met while she was sat and chilling in a Starbucks and not on her way somewhere we’d have spoken for 20-30 minutes plus and made plans to meet for dinner. Once again, let me say that there’s no ego behind that statement (well maybe a little), I say it because I can just tell from past experience in conjunction with how we interacted and the things that she had on when we met. I guess it’s another reason not to take any dating related rejections to hear because when they occur, there’s probably a whole host of circumstances causing that rejection which have nothing to do with you as a person. 34 days down, 16 to go	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Once upon an ITC cliff dreary, while the U.S. solar industry pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of political lore, While the industry nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some bi-partisan legislation gently rapping at the industry’s door. “Tis an extension,” the industry muttered, “maybe six months for those who started building — Only this, and nothing more.” Ah, distinctly as the industry remembered it was in the bleak end-of-2015 And each separate net metering and ITC challenge wrought its ghost upon the industry. Eagerly the industry wished the morrow; — vainly it hoped for a last minute rescue From its activities surcease of sorrow — sorrow for lost future deployment and revenue opportunities — For the necessary ITC extension and fair net metering legislation — Teetering on the brink for evermore. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each PUC, utility and congressional opining Disrupted the industry — filled it with fantastic terrors it had forgotten it felt before So that now, to still the beating of the industry’s heart, it stood repeating “Tis some last minute respite entreating entrance at congress’s door — Some late 2016 ITC extension passing through congress’s door;” — Is this all the industry could hope for and nothing more? Presently the industry’s soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, And to Congressional representatives and PUC commissioners it said “it is the health of the planet and the energy future for which we implore;” But the fact is the industry had been napping, and so changes to crucial incentives came rapping, And the realization that action was needed came tapping, tapping at the U.S. solar industry’s door, That time scarce was sure it heard— and so the industry opened wide the door; — To find lack of clarity there, and nothing more. Deep into that darkness peering, long the industry stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams of a renewable energy driven future no mortals ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only words there spoken were the whispered words, “ITC extension? Fair and reliable net metering programs?” This the industry whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “maybe!” Merely this, and nothing more. Back into industry conferences and associations churning, all stakeholders in the industry burning, Soon again the industry felt an anxiety somewhat harsher than before. “Surely,” said the industry, “surely the potential loss of jobs will make a difference: Let me see, then, what there at is, whether this aspect we can explore — Let the industry act as one in this moment and this unity explore; — ‘Tis the responsibility of all solar industry participants and nothing more.” New industry groups formed with disparate goals when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a moment of Clarity, which had appeared rarely in the days of yore; But too much noise and differing goals surrounded it; too much panic confounded it; And a lack of political clout and solidarity stayed it from the door —— And so Clarity sat and waited for unity, sat and waited, and nothing more. Differing goals, dire warnings and exaggerations abounded, And industry participants were confounded., Meanwhile the clocked ticked down to the 2016 deadline and anxiety mounted— While utilities added fees and net metering fell under stronger attack And even traditional industry associations changed strategies and seemed unsure And the U.S. presidential election threatened to stall all action as always before. Previously certain of an ITC extension, large companies began to mention Slower growth and potential layoffs, though to the recently executed strategies of these companies— little relevancy bore; For the industry cannot help agreeing that past behavior continues repeating And a last minute save of the ITC will instantly erase careful, conservative future planning, as it has before — Thus we know one thing for certain, it is that the future is uncertain, And will remain so, evermore.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Albion are delighted to confirm young England goalkeeper Josh Griffiths has today signed a four-year deal with the Club. The 18-year-old from Hereford put pen to paper on an extended contract which ties him to The Hawthorns until 2023. Griffiths, who is just back from training with the Young Lions’ Under-20 squad, has previously represented his country at Under-18 level. He trained throughout pre-season alongside first-team keepers Sam Johnstone and Jonathan Bond and has made a big impact within the ranks. Senior goalkeeping coach Gary Walsh said: “It’s great for the Club and it’s great for Josh. Apart from his potential, he’s a terrific lad who is really grounded and that’s a big credit to him, the Club and everyone who has worked with him. “He’s working alongside the three senior keepers now and he is like a sponge listening to all their advice. They want to help him because he is such a genuine young man “The biggest compliment I can pay him is that I keep forgetting he’s 18. His potential is there for us all to see – but now he has got to keep working and I am sure he will do.” Sporting and Technical Director Luke Dowling added that he first noted Josh’s potential and progress a year ago when reports from first-team training sessions began to filter through. Luke said: “When you hear Dwight Gayle complaining he can never beat him and Jake Livermore checking on whether we have got him tied down on a contract, you know you’ve got a talent on your hands. “It’s been important for us to get Josh settled on a long deal because we know of at least one Premier League club who were trying to lure him away. “I’m delighted he has committed to us and looking forward to see him progress still further.” And Josh himself, who is already pushing 6ft 6in, spoke of his excitement at agreeing a new deal with the Baggies. “I’ve been at the Club since I was 10 so this is pretty special for me. I’m delighted,” he said. “It’s been a fantastic learning curve for me working with the senior keepers. "Training alongside Sam, Bondy and now Ali is tremendous and they are always willing to help me progress."	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Ballpark Bucket List: How To Fly To All 30 Major League Ballparks for Under $2.4K Summary The shortest tour of all ballparks involves just over 9,000 miles of flying, but would cost nearly $3,000 in airfare The cheapest tour saves more than 20% on airfare while flying 60% more miles Use Hopper’s interactive tool to pick the airport closest to you and start your tour! Details Have you dreamed of visiting every major league ballpark? With baseball season back in full swing, Hopper decided to find the shortest and cheapest circuits of all 30 major league stadiums. We found the closest major airports to each park, and looked at the prices of flights connecting them. We calculated great circle distances, ignoring any intermediate stopovers. Both the shortest and cheapest loops involve flying to 24 airports, but due to the idiosyncrasies of airline pricing, the cheapest loop takes you 60% further while saving about 20% on airfare. Use our interactive tool to pick the airport closest to you and start your tour! Shortest Tour of All 30 MLB parks Figure 1: The shortest flying circuit of all ballparks: 9,004 miles at a cost of about $2,970. The shortest flying route is summarized in the table below, and involves flying to 24 airports to visit all 30 stadiums. Airfare shows good deal one-way price from the previous city to the listed one (e.g. STL-MDW for $208). Distance is the corresponding flight distance in miles (e.g. YYZ-BOS is 445 miles). Airport City Airfare Distance (miles) Stadium MCI Kansas City $96 393 Kauffman Stadium STL St. Louis $202 236 Busch Stadium MDW Chicago $104 251 U.S. Cellular Field, Wrigley Field MKE Milwaukee $162 81 Miller Park DTW Detroit $149 237 Comerica Park YYZ Toronto $148 214 Rogers Centre BOS Boston $140 445 Fenway Park EWR Newark $148 200 Citi Field, Citizens Bank Park, Yankee Stadium BWI Baltimore $120 169 Nationals Park, Oriole Park at Camden Yards PIT Pittsburgh $93 210 PNC Park CLE Cleveland $208 106 Progressive Field CVG Cincinnati $134 221 Great American Ball Park ATL Atlanta $117 374 Turner Field TPA Tampa $100 407 Tropicana Field MIA Miami $91 205 Marlins Park IAH Houston $158 963 Minute Maid Park DAL Dallas $73 217 Globe Life Park in Arlington DEN Denver $187 651 Coors Field PHX Phoenix $68 602 Chase Field SAN San Diego $94 304 Petco Park LAX Los Angeles $116 109 Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Dodger Stadium SFO San Francisco $58 338 ATT Park, O.co Coliseum SEA Seattle $79 679 Safeco Field MSP Minneapolis $120 1,395 Target Field Cheapest Tour of All 30 MLB parks Figure 2: The cheapest circuit, which at $2,367 is more than 20% cheaper, covers 14,154 miles, nearly 60% farther. The cheapest flying route is summarized in the table below, and also involves flying to 24 airports to visit all 30 stadiums. However, the order of flights is different for cheapest route vs. shortest route. Airport City Airfare Distance (miles) Stadium PIT Pittsburgh $192 222 PNC Park BOS Boston $67 494 Fenway Park BWI Baltimore $62 369 Nationals Park, Oriole Park at Camden Yards CLE Cleveland $93 313 Progressive Field EWR Newark $79 403 Citi Field, Citizens Bank Park, Yankee Stadium ATL Atlanta $67 745 Turner Field TPA Tampa $100 406 Tropicana Field MIA Miami $91 204 Marlins Park DTW Detroit $125 1,147 Comerica Park DEN Denver $63 1,119 Coors Field MCI Kansas City $63 531 Kauffman Stadium MKE Milwaukee $81 435 Miller Park MSP Minneapolis $93 296 Target Field MDW Chicago $69 348 U.S. Cellular Field, Wrigley Field STL St. Louis $104 251 Busch Stadium CVG Cincinnati $109 307 Great American Ball Park IAH Houston $146 871 Minute Maid Park DAL Dallas $72 216 Globe Life Park in Arlington PHX Phoenix $145 877 Chase Field LAX Los Angeles $69 369 Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Dodger Stadium SFO San Francisco $58 337 ATT Park, O.co Coliseum SEA Seattle $79 679 Safeco Field SAN San Diego $103 1,051 Petco Park YYZ Toronto $225 2,153 Rogers Centre References 1.http://www.ballparkchasers.com/ Site dedicated to collecting ballparks 2.http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/ranking-baseballs-best-ballparks/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 Nice table of stadium rankings from yelp 3.http://www.rsvlts.com/2013/10/21/mlb-ballpark-yelp-ranking/ A list with pictures of all the ballparks and update rankings Data and Methodology The data presented in this analysis comes from Hopper’s combined feed of Global Distribution Service (GDS) data sources which includes about 10 million queries and 1 billion trips per day. Demand is represented as the number of queries not actual ticket purchases, and is calibrated across all GDS sources for each market. Lowest fare, or deal fare, is represented by the 10th percentile prices. For example if the 10th percentile price is $800 dollars it means that only 10% of trips are priced at or below this price.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The Takeaway: According to a new report from Electric Capital, open-source crypto projects have lost developers, but thanks to the industry’s most committed technologists, total activity has stayed relatively constant since the late-2017 boom. Lower-market-cap crypto projects have lost the most developers, while promising sectors like decentralized finance and infrastructure projects have been gaining them. Throughout 2019, roughly 2,450 developers have pushed code on 10 or more days per month. The total population of these highly committed developers is up 13 percent. Even as market caps went down, year-over-year growth rates among developers never dropped below zero. The least committed contributors were the first to leave as cryptocurrency market caps went south. That’s the main finding from Electric Capital’s second “Developer Report,” which was published Monday. The report analyzes code activity in all the open-source repositories in crypto and follows the venture capital firm’s first such report from March. While there’s a sense that protocols and projects have been losing code contributors, the majority of developers that left crypto during the market correction in the first half of 2019 (77 percent of them) were the least committed contributors to the least promising projects. Meanwhile, total commits really haven’t gone down. “The mystery we’re really trying to unravel here is why commits have stayed very, very consistent through crypto winter even though high-level developers have decreased,” Maria Shen, who leads data science for Electric Capital, told CoinDesk in a phone call. In fact, Electric found that most of the total losses in developers were those doing the least amount of work. Meanwhile, more consistently contributing developers have kept the overall contributions consistent even as the developer total shrank. Electric Capital’s research spanned over 27,000 code repositories, with additional work added in to cull duplicate entries and low-level contributions that tend to inflate real developer activity. The researchers also de-duplicated developers who contributed to more than one project, though by and large, these were rare. The principal insight, according to Electric Capital, came in dividing developers into three groups: one-time (those who only committed code one day per month), part-time (those who committed two to nine days per month) and full-time (those who committed 10 or more days per month). The top 100 projects lost only 4 percent of their total developers while the rest lost 19 percent. Across the board, the less often a developer made commits, the more likely they were to quit making contributions. Nevertheless, monthly commits into the code base in 2019 never dropped below the levels seen in the early part of 2017’s crypto boom, in no small part because the total number of developers contributing on 10 or more days each month has ticked up slightly, ending at 2,455 in June 2019. “It’s a useful breakdown to keep track of since the total number of developers declining doesn’t tell the full story,” Linda Xie of Scalar Capital told CoinDesk. “Fifty percent of the drop [in total developers] is from people who committed one commit in a month. That for me was a key takeaway of the data,” Avichal Garg, co-founder of Electric, told CoinDesk. More importantly, the team notes that market downturns among the major blockchains over the last year only served to slow the accumulation of part-time and full-time developers. New developers continued to join the top 100 projects, though at a slower pace when prices were down. Which means that, if crypto really is at the beginning of an upturn, “way more developers should rush in over the next two or three years,” Garg said. It’s also important to note that there are a number of early projects out there (such as Near, Coda and Oasis) that have not yet posted their code into open repositories, so there could be some undercounting. Nevertheless, Electric believes its data is “directionally” informative. Further, it’s also worth noting that the analysis made efforts to include any project that’s contributing to a given blockchain, not just direct commits to the underlying protocol (such as applications and infrastructure efforts that aren’t directly in the core code). Key data points With 100 pages primarily devoted to graphs and charts, there is a lot of information to glean from studying this report. Here are a few points that stood out: Ethereum on top: Of all the developers evaluated in this analysis, 18 percent worked on ethereum, which continues to have the largest contributor base (the second strongest is bitcoin). Of all the developers evaluated in this analysis, 18 percent worked on ethereum, which continues to have the largest contributor base (the second strongest is bitcoin). Up-and-comers: The next three largest developer communities were EOS, Cardano and Monero, in that order. The next three largest developer communities were EOS, Cardano and Monero, in that order. Money isn’t everything: Litecoin and Dogecoin all have more than $100 million in daily transaction volume, but less than six developers on average per month. Meanwhile, Stellar, Tron, Maker, BAT, Aeternity, Waves, Tezos and Status have more than 40 on average but come in at less than $100 million in daily volume. Litecoin and Dogecoin all have more than $100 million in daily transaction volume, but less than six developers on average per month. Meanwhile, Stellar, Tron, Maker, BAT, Aeternity, Waves, Tezos and Status have more than 40 on average but come in at less than $100 million in daily volume. Trends in loss: Developers are primarily leaving the blockchains that aren’t in the top 100 by market capitalization. They are also gravitating to infrastructure work and decentralized finance, at the expense of other applications and blockchains oriented around money. Developers are primarily leaving the blockchains that aren’t in the top 100 by market capitalization. They are also gravitating to infrastructure work and decentralized finance, at the expense of other applications and blockchains oriented around money. The long tail is still long: Nevertheless, there are still 583 ecosystems that have seen at least two developers at work over the last six months; 748 had at least one sustained developer. Nevertheless, there are still 583 ecosystems that have seen at least two developers at work over the last six months; 748 had at least one sustained developer. Code is sticky: Smart-contract blockchains are losing occasional contributors but gaining full-timers. Smart-contract blockchains are losing occasional contributors but gaining full-timers. Best winner and worst loser: Among the projects that averaged more than 40 developers, Maker gained the most and EOS lost the most, in numerical terms. Among the projects that averaged more than 40 developers, Maker gained the most and EOS lost the most, in numerical terms. How to win devs and influence crypto: A well designed testnet launch can be a great way to market a blockchain to developers looking for a place to contribute. Electric found major upticks around these efforts. Shen pointed in particular to Cosmos’s “Game of Stakes” as a standout success. Why this information matters “Developers who have been really building in the ecosystem have continued to build,” Shen said, “and these ecosystems are incredibly strong.” Broadly speaking, Garg argues that this report’s findings are encouraging for the whole ecosystem. Tactically, he said, this kind of work helps his company identify projects that are neglected by the broader investment community. Further, he said there have been some industry-wide assumptions that this research supports with real data. For example, that decentralized finance is attracting a lot of interest and that the very low-quality projects from the initial coin offering (ICO) boom are stagnating or dying. “This data is generally valuable for everyone to quantify these intuitions we all have,” Garg said. Garg also pointed to some surprises in the data. For example, that Grin’s developer community has held on despite waning interest in crypto more broadly. Additionally, that EOS did well at attracting committed developers, despite meeting general skepticism across the industry. Critically, Garg said, across the history of the technology industry, engineers are a leading indicator of winning companies and dominant software. That’s why Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft all fight so fiercely to attract and retain talent. He believes the same will prove to be true in crypto. Said Garg: “Where the developers aggregate, that’s where value aggregates.” Electric Capital co-founder Avichal Garg speaks at Consensus 2019 (photo via CoinDesk archives)	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
An Indian man has defied the odds and fulfilled his dream of becoming a cricket player - despite losing both arms in a tragic accident as a child. Amir Hussain Lone, 26, from north India's Kashmir region uses his feet to bowl and is able to bat by holding it between his neck and shoulder. Mr Hussain Lone was just eight years old when he was involved in an accident in his father's sawmill, which in the cruellest of ironies, made cricket bats. Champion: Amir Hussain Lone, 26, is the captain of the Kashmir state's para-cricket team, despite losing his arms in an accident aged eight Mr Hussain Lone plays cricket by using his feet to bowl, and bats by holding it between his neck and shoulder He lost both his arms, and his family had to sell the sawmill in order to pay for his medical bills and rehabilitation. However Mr Hussain Lone was determined to learn how to play cricket again, and is now the captain of the Kashmir state's para-cricket team. Mr Hussain Lone's unusual technique for batting involves holding the bat between his neck and shoulder, and he bowls with his toes - using a sweeping leg movement to launch the cricket ball. 'Cricket is my passion and in the beginning, it was very difficult for me,' said Amir, who lives in Indian-administered Kashmir. 'When I was younger, I wasn't even able to eat without my hands. Cruel irony: Mr Hussain Lone, pictured before the accident and now, was just eight years old when he was involved in an accident in the family sawmill - which made cricket bats. Mr Lone Hussain's family had to sell the sawmill in order to pay for his medical bills and rehabilitation. The 26-year-old para-cricketer bowls with his toes - using a sweeping leg movement to launch the ball Development: After losing his hands, the para-cricketer had to learn how to do everything with his feet 'When I tried to play cricket for the first time after the accident, people used to make fun of me. Now they are very supportive.' Recounting the accident, which took place in 1997, Mr Hussain Lone said: 'I was taking some food to my brother who worked there. 'I used to play with the sawmill machine, but on this occasion both of my arms got entangled in the machine.' Suffering extensive injuries, Mr Hussain Lone was taken to hospital, where he remained for three years. The accident had a devastating effect on the family, who sold everything to pay the medical expenses. Mr Hussain Lone's father, Bashir, said, 'I had my own sawmill and we used to manufacture our own cricket bats. But after the accident, I had to sell everything. The captain of the Jammu and Kashmir Para-cricket team - is hoping to take his skills to the highest level Grooming: Mr Hussain Lone shaves and grooms his hair using his feet, holding the razor between his toes He lost both arms when they got entangled in the sawmill machinery, and was in hospital for three years 'People used talk bad about my son. They used to say I was wasting both my money and time on him, that he was of no use. 'But he is so dear to me like a part of my body. As a father why do I need wealth when my son is not well?' Eventually returning home, Mr Hussain Lone joined the local school, but encountered a number of challenges. 'My grandmother encouraged me to go to school, I wasn't ready but she convinced me,' he said. 'A teacher even told me that this school was not meant for [disadvantaged] children like me.' But his passion for cricket remained and he found pleasure playing with his friends and spent two years learning the sport. 'Batting was not a difficult task,' Mr Hussain Lone says. 'But bowling without arms was a miracle and I somehow managed to do it.' Now Amir - who is captain of the Jammu and Kashmir Para-cricket team - is hoping to take his skills to the highest level.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Tony Obour ist ein Meister mit dem Schraubenzieher. Er brütet über einem Fernseher. In seinem Laden in Accra repariert der Ghanaer Altgeräte aus Europa. Andernorts in der westafrikanischen Millionenstadt beugt sich Lubman Idris über Metallreste. Er verdient sein Geld mit dem Rohstoffverkauf aus kaputter Elektronik. Über 5000 Kilometer entfernt, in Hamburg, hat auch Polizeioberkommissar Wolfgang Heidorn mit Bildschirmen und Kühlschränken zu tun: Er soll Elektromüll finden, der das Land eigentlich nicht verlassen dürfte. Alle drei Männer haben Rollen in einem Wirtschaftskreislauf, der in Teilen illegal ist. Und der manche Menschen in armen Ländern krank macht: dem Geschäft mit ausrangierten Elektrogeräten. Immer mehr Elektromüll Computer, Drucker, Staubsauger, LED-Leuchten: International wächst der Berg an Elektromüll. Eine UN-Studie schätzt, dass die Menge weltweit von 44,8 Millionen Tonnen auf über 52 Millionen im Jahr 2021 ansteigen wird. Auch weil Menschen in reichen Ländern wie Deutschland schnell die neueste Technik nutzen wollen. Das Handy ist nicht mehr angesagt. Der Laptop lädt zu langsam, die Auflösung des Fernsehers ginge besser – schon werden die Dinge ausgemistet. Andere haben den Geist wirklich aufgegeben. Bild 1 von 15 Unser Elektroschrott in Ghana (15 Bilder) Polizeioberkommissar Wolfgang Heidorn kontrolliert den Inhalt eines Containers. (Bild: Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa) Die alte Waschmaschine nimmt eventuell der Lieferant der neuen mit, viele kleine Geräte bringen wir zu einer offiziellen Sammelstelle. Oder die Dinge werden online, auf dem Flohmarkt oder im Gebrauchtwarenladen verkauft. Doch was passiert dann? Häufig bleibt es im Verborgenen, was mit dem Abfall geschieht. Wobei längst klar ist, dass Altelektronik nicht wertlos ist. In ihr stecken kostbare Stoffe wie Gold. Doch wer kann das Ausrangierte am sinnvollsten wiederverwerten? Wo ist der beste Ort fürs Recycling? Alte Geräte schippern oft auf andere Kontinente. Vieles wandert Richtung Afrika, häufig nach Agbogbloshie in Ghana, auf einen riesigen Schrottplatz. Ein Reisebericht Tafsir Rahimi hat sich auf alte Elektrogeräte spezialisiert. Der Afghane ist Händler in der Billstraße in Hamburg-Rothenburgsort. In Schuppen, Läden und Hallen sind Polstermöbel, Fernseher, Elektrogeräte und Fahrräder zu finden. Die Qualität reicht von ganz ordentlich bis eher Schrott. Rahimi kauft Elektronik von Firmen, die von Verbrauchern zurückgegebene Altgeräte sammeln, wie er erläutert. Die regelmäßigen Kontrollen durch Polizei und Behörden in der Billstraße empfindet er als Stress. Kaputte Elektronik – also Schrott – darf nicht einfach in Länder mit niedrigen Standards exportiert werden. Seit einer Neufassung des Elektrogesetzes 2015 müssen Exporteure nachweisen, dass Altware noch funktioniert. Er lasse seine Geräte auf Funktionsfähigkeit prüfen, betont Rahimi. Der nächste Halt der Ware aus der Billstraße ist häufig der Hamburger Hafen. Als größter deutscher Container-Umschlagplatz wird er von Reedereien im Liniendienst zwischen Europa und Afrika genutzt. Den Ermittlern für Umweltdelikte ist auf dem Terminal in Altenwerder ein Container aufgefallen. Er ist doppelt so schwer, wie er nach den Frachtpapieren sein dürfte und muss zurück zur Spedition. Es könnten darin Elektrogeräte versteckt sein, die nicht mehr funktionieren. Kommissar Wolfgang Heidorn kommt zur Kontrolle. Container-Kontrolle in Hamburg Drei Stunden dauert es, bis afrikanische Helfer den Container geleert haben. Ans Licht kommen Plastikstühle, Kühlschränke, Fahrräder, Polstermöbel, TV-Geräte. Speditionsmitarbeiter Adigun Lawal betont, das sei kein Müll. Es gehe um den Handel mit Gebrauchtwaren. Afrikaner kauften lieber Secondhand-Dinge in Deutschland als Neues aus China, sagt der gebürtige Nigerianer. "Robust ist wichtig", ergänzt er. Die Ghanaer, so seine Erfahrung, könnten fast alles reparieren. Nach der Inspektion fällt Heidorns Bilanz bescheiden aus. Er hat eine Reihe von Fernsehern ohne Funktionsnachweis aufgespürt. Solche Prüfsiegel stellt zum Beispiel der Elektriker Danny Yayar aus – für etwa zwei Euro pro Gerät. Doch: Wann ist etwas Schrott? Das Gerät müsse die Hauptfunktion erfüllen, sagt Yayar. "Ein Kühlschrank muss kühlen." Yayars Firma testet, wie er sagt, rund 160.000 Geräte pro Jahr. Exportiert werde ein Vielfaches, vermutet er. Das Hamburger Institut für Ökologie und Politik, kurz Ökopol, hatte für 2008 geschätzt, dass damals rund 155.000 Tonnen alte Elektrogeräte von Deutschland nach Afrika und Asien exportiert wurden. Neuere Detail-Erhebungen dazu fehlen. 2014 wurden in der EU nach Angaben von Eurostat 9,3 Millionen Tonnen Elektronik auf den Markt gebracht. Ein Jahr später waren es bereits 9,8 Millionen Tonnen. Etwa ein Drittel bis die rund Hälfte dieser Menge wird in Europa als Abfall getrennt gesammelt und entsorgt.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Ethereum has maintained its upward trend and momentum over the past seven days, recording a staggering $3.7 bln increase in market cap, from $5.7 bln to $9 bln. On May 5, Ethereum price established its new all-time high at $101 as the demand from both traders and institutional investors surged. There are three major factors that have supported the increase in Ethereum price: widespread adoption in South Korea, satisfactory performance from the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) and the emergence of innovative decentralized applications based on the Ethereum network. South Korea - the largest Ethereum exchange market, major Ripple driver Surpassing the US and China, South Korea officially became the largest Ethereum exchange market with a market share of 21 percent of the global Ethereum exchange market. The South Korean exchange market processes 978,000 Ethers on a daily basis, a volume that is equivalent to $104 mln. Some of South Korea’s major Bitcoin exchanges including Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit have experienced a massive spike in Ethereum trading volume, due to the Bitcoin scalability problems and exchange hacking attacks within the region. While it may appear absurd to the global Bitcoin community, many Korbit users told Cointelegraph that users have migrated from Bitcoin to Ethereum due to Bitcoin’s scalability issues and Blockchain congestion. Many users have become impatient with the high transaction fees of Bitcoin, which according to 21 Inc’s Bitcoin Fees average at $0.71. Also, one of South Korea’s most widely utilized Bitcoin exchange was hacked this past week. Many users that had insignificant knowledge in Bitcoin assumed that Bitcoin’s security measures led to the hack, rather than the Bitcoin exchange’s weak infrastructure and security systems. Yapizon, the exchange which lost over $5 mln worth of Bitcoins in a security breach, told its users that the stolen funds will be recovered by the issuance of tokens. The Yapizon team wrote: “Yapizon entered the cryptocurrency industry four years ago and it is expanding services and operations rapidly across the region. From January to March of this year, Yapizon generated over $325,000 in profit and the company projects a total profit of $1.8 mln by the end of 2017. If customers trust in Yapizon and its practices, the company believes it can make up for the losses of all customers relatively soon,” said the Yapizon team. Growing fees Bitcoin’s growing fee market, security breaches of major Bitcoin exchanges and the active Ethereum development community and meetups have allowed Ethereum to reach widespread adoption within South Korea. Speaking to Cointelegraph, local users also stated that Ripple has become a hot commodity in the region because it is currently being supported by South Korea’s largest Bitcoin exchange Korbit. One user told Cointelegraph: “Many users, traders and investors have begun to invest in Ethereum and Ripple. The Yapizon Bitcoin exchange hack and Bitcoin’s growing fees have all contributed to the growing demand for Ethereum and Ripple in South Korea.” Ripple recorded a 38 percent increase in price over the past 24 hours. Litecoin has also experienced a 22.9 percent surge in price due to the activation of Segregated Witness.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Until Mar. 7th Maintenance! Pet Seal Exchange Period: Until Mar. 14th Maintenance. Please make sure to exchange your Pet Seals before the exchange period as any remaining Pet Seals will be automatically exchanged as Kanpacho's Chewable Tablet(s) after the exchange period. Only exchangeable with the same species. i.e. Red Orc is exchangeable only with Red Orc Until Mar. 14th Maintenance! Until Feb. 28th Maintenance! Until Mar. 7th Maintenance! Until Mar. 7th Maintenance! Until Feb. 28th Maintenance! Until Feb. 28th Maintenance!	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Yes, we can tell. Those “reactions to things" have made Carlson a star of cable news. Though viewers know exactly what fellow Fox News prime-timer Sean Hannity will say every night — and still his fans never miss him — Carlson zigs and zags just enough to sidestep characterization as a party-line dogmatist. One moment, he’ll shock the Fox News crowd with a rebuke of President Trump for going soft on immigration; the next, he’ll praise the economic message of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); he’ll attack every elite in the country, as he did to cheers at the December 2018 Turning Point USA Student Action Summit: Last Thursday night, Carlson was again exerting his attention-getting muscles. In a Daily Caller opinion piece, Carlson and Neil Patel — co-founders of the Daily Caller — ripped the idea of impeaching Trump. “The president did not, as was first reported, offer a quid pro quo to the Ukrainians,” wrote the duo. “He did not condition any U.S. support on a Biden investigation. The Justice Department has already looked at the totality of the call and determined that Trump did not break the law.” AD AD Such sentiments wouldn’t surprise viewers of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” who’ve heard the host diminish the movement toward impeachment. Yet Carlson and Patel opened their op-ed with this admission: “Donald Trump should not have been on the phone with a foreign head of state encouraging another country to investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden,” wrote the authors. “Some Republicans are trying, but there’s no way to spin this as a good idea. Like a lot of things Trump does, it was pretty over-the-top.” News! “This is a pretty transparent effort to provide a roadmap for Republicans looking for a way to publicly condemn Trump’s actions but still oppose impeachment,” noted CNN’s Abby Phillip. “Their argument is: what Trump did is bad and corrupt but we are so close to the election that voters should decide.” Other outlets picked up on the break from Trumpian orthodoxy. AD AD Not to mention the break from “Tucker Carlson Tonight” orthodoxy. The very night that the Daily Caller published the op-ed, for example, Carlson on Fox News described the Ukraine affair as the work of disaffected operatives in the intelligence community: Day after day, [Trump] gave the finger to the permanent Washington establishment, often on Twitter, sometimes at press conferences, but always with unmistakable relish. Trump acted like a man who’d won an election in a democratic country. He seemed to feel free to say exactly what he really thought. He didn’t appear to believe that the intelligence agencies had veto power over his agenda. In a thousand different ways, the new president refused to bow, and for that crime, more than any other crime, he was punished, most recently by the manufactured Ukraine scandal. Please try to square these two thoughts: “There’s no way to spin” the Ukraine scandal; the Ukraine scandal is “manufactured.” The next night, Carlson opened his program with these remarks: “We’re nearing the end of our second full week of total saturation Ukraine coverage — that means every channel, every hour of the day,” said the host. “So at this point, you’d think it would be obvious what exactly the fuss is about. After this much talking, you would assume every person in America would understand what crimes Donald Trump is being accused of committing. But no, even now, the story still feels obscure and strangely light.” AD AD Please try to square these two thoughts: “There’s no way to spin” the Ukraine scandal; the Ukraine scandal “feels obscure and strangely light.” Scrolling back a bit, on the Sept. 30 edition of his show, Carlson blasted Democrats for citing national security concerns stemming from Trump’s handling of the Ukraine situation. Carlson appeared miffed that the information about Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had even reached the public realm: “Another thing that puts our national security at risk for real is when you make it impossible for the president, any president, to have private conversations with his counterparts in other countries, with other foreign leaders,” said Carlson. The host pursued a similar line of argument in February 2017, when he complained that the intelligence community was listening to the conversations of fired national security adviser Michael Flynn with the Russians. “If you do not have any privacy from the U.S. government spying on you, like, things fall apart,” he said. After the complaint of the CIA whistleblower surfaced, Carlson deflected and minimized the president’s actions: “You think the next time a Democrat is elected president — and it will happen — the Democrats will be comfortable with the standard they have set? That if some unelected intel agency guy doesn’t like their foreign policy, he can destroy their administration,” said Carlson on Sept. 26. Later in that program, he did an entire segment dissing the whistleblower himself. AD AD On Sept. 24, Carlson listed all the real problems facing the country, including debt, the scourge of all-powerful tech companies, “basically an open border” with Mexico and so on. “But instead of trying to fix any of that, Democrats want to spend the next year explaining — and they plan to — explaining why it was perfectly fair for Joe Biden’s ne’er-do-well son to get 600 grand a year from Ukrainian oligarchs. That’s totally fine. But it’s somehow criminal for Donald Trump to ask about that. That’s the message,” said Carlson. Seen enough? The contradictions suggest the low esteem in which Carlson holds his own television audience. “The things that he’s saying on the Daily Caller and the things that he’s saying on television are mutually exclusive — there’s no question about it,” says Madeline Peltz, a close watcher of Carlson at Media Matters for America. In segment after segment, Carlson has told his viewers that the Ukraine crisis is “manufactured,” impugned the integrity of those who brought it to light, and attacked those who are taking it seriously. Then, on another platform, he professes that there’s no way to “spin” it. He should know; he has given it his best shot.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Navazon Digital created a new version of our existing shopping cart with a modern and user-friendly interface. We went thru many revisions until all landing pages were perfect. We were surprised to find out that our orders increased by 10% immediately after we launched the new site. Our customers sent us hundreds of emails letting us know they loved the new site. The new site enhanced our credibility and helped out with our worldwide partners in a dramatic way. ND then reorganized our AdWords PPC marketing campaign and introduced us to affiliate marketing which has become a lucrative part of our business. I am looking forward to starting our Facebook Marketing campaign with Navazon Digital soon. Mike Saleh \| President Bestvite Navazon Digital created and marketed my website and took my online business to all new heights. We are and have been dominating the first page of Google for over ten years. They’ve been available to answer all my concerns and have worked with me diligently to improve my online presence. Thank you for all your help and creative input over the years. Belinda Clontz \| CEO Flower Girl Dress For Less As a Nonprofit organization, competitive pricing, reliable technical support and good customer service were some of our main objective for contracting our web designer. Navazon Digital exceeded all our expectations. Since launching our web site on 2007, Navazon has been our web designer and one of our reliable service providers. We recommend Navazon Digital to any Nonprofit organization. Behnam Bakhshandeh \| Executive Director ASPIRE, Inc. Amin was very helpful and knowledgeable about our industry and our online business needs from the first meeting. He and the Navazon Digital team developed a theme and created our website. No detail was spared and we are now competing with top brands and our reach has expanded because of the marketing campaign developed, launched and maintained by Navazon Digital. Roger Wilkinson \| CTO Rush PCB Creating our global online directory was not an easy task. We had a strict requirement for building our website, business directory and agent portal. Navazon Digital worked with us every step of the way and delivered a website that exceeded our expectations. Our directory pages now have a global presence and superior functionality. Mohsen D.Rokhy \| Operations Director Global Business Portal We are extremely pleased with the level of service and professionalism our company received from your team. Our web presence has increased through marketing with Navazon Digital and our customer base has doubled because of our webstore on various comparison engines. Ameen Pirbai \| President Eurolec Ltd UK Great service and easy to get a hold of if needed. With my busy schedule, I was impressed by how fast and simple it was to create my website. Navazon Digital staff really listened to my needs and provided all the necessary tools to get my law office website up and ready. The day they came to shoot the video and take pictures of the staff, we were all impressed with the level of professionalism and attention to detail. The video was impressive and the pictures were better than some studio headshots we had taken in the past. Local marketing was surprisingly affordable and paid for itself quickly. Ramin Ghashghaei, ESQ Law Offices of Ramin Ghashghaei	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Girl/girl Triangles #35 Super-cute Alison Ray in steaming all girl act with Prinzzess	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has condemned what he called an "armed terrorist attack," which saw grenades and gunfire launched from a helicopter over the capital's Supreme Court building.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about. The actor: Olympia Dukakis started her acting career in the 1950s, made her TV and film debuts in the ’60s, and has been bouncing back and forth between them ever since. But if there’s a specific turning point in her career, it’s her Oscar win for 1987’s Moonstruck. Dukakis has continued to earn acclaim for her performances over the years, including Steel Magnolias and Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City, and she can currently be seen in the ensemble film A Little Game, now available on DVD and VOD. A Little Game (2014)—“YaYa” Olympia Dukakis: They sent me the script and I liked it. And I liked the people, and I especially liked the director [Evan Oppenheimer], so… that was it. Up, up, and away. A.V. Club: So who is YaYa, aside from the obvious grandmotherly connotations of the nickname? OD: Oh, I don’t know. Who is she? [Laughs.] Well, you know, she’s up in age, and she wants to somehow have an effect, and she wants life to have some kind of meaning. That’s about it. AVC: In a film like this, with such a big ensemble, do you enjoy the opportunity to just kind of get in, mark your mark, and head out? OD: Oh, absolutely. And it was one of the nicest group of actors I’ve ever worked with. AVC: The “little game” in the title is chess. Do you have a background in playing chess? OD: Oh, no. I don’t have any background. I played checkers when I was a kid. Does that count? I don’t think so, but there it is. I was much more physical. I wasn’t into board games. I wanted to be out on the street, playing this and that and doing this and that. Sports was the big thing for me. AVC: Was there any aspect to YaYa that you were able to bring to the character that wasn’t originally in the script? OD: Well, I always kind of flatter myself if that happens. [Laughs.] I’ll tell you one thing that I really loved about the film, though: being called YaYa. I have grandchildren, and they call me YaYa. I was talking with a friend of mine, and she said, “I’m not gonna have my grandchildren call me YaYa!” I said, “Why?” She said, “I don’t know. I just don’t want that.” But I had such a wonderful YaYa—although I only had her for about the first 11 years—that I was eager to be called a YaYa! So it was great to be called that in the film. It’s a personal thing, and maybe it’s a little silly, but it’s true. [Starts singing.] “They called me YaYa…” Dr. Kildare (1962)—“Anna Nieves” The Nurses (1962)—“Ioana Chiriac” AVC: It looks like your first on-camera appearance was an episode of Dr. Kildare. OD: Oh, yes! You’re right about that! We were talking about Raymond Massey the other night. Somebody was talking about him—he was a difficult man to work with—and the very first television thing I did was with him! Raymond Massey and… oh, who was the guy who actually played Dr. Kildare. Richard Chamberlain! AVC: Would you believe that the episode is online? OD: [Stunned.] That episode is online? Oh, my God. I’m trying to remember my character. Isn’t that the one where I have an operation about my hearing? AVC: That actually might be the episode of The Nurses that you did right around the same time. OD: Oh, you know, I think you’re right! AVC: Because on Dr. Kildare you play a woman whose husband has been in a car accident. OD: Okay, right. I remember it was a good director on that, too. I can’t remember his name, but I remember him. And I remember that I really liked him. [The director in question was Lamont Johnson, whose last feature film as a director was Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, starring Michael Ironside. –ed.] AVC: You mentioned that Raymond Massey wasn’t exactly easy to work with. OD: Oh, no, he wasn’t. He was very standoffish. Very ex cathedra. Do you know what that means? It means he sits in a chair and looks down at people. Very judgmental. I guess he was sick of young actors. [Laughs.] AVC: So how did you first find your way into a career in acting? OD: How did I find my way? I started a theater in Boston, with people I graduated from graduate school with. It was called The Actors’ Company. I did that for a couple of years, and then I came to New York in ’58, and I realized that I had to learn to hustle. [Laughs.] In ’71, I started another company called The Whole Theater Company. But when I first got to New York, I hustled, I got an agent, and I just kept at it. Slowly, slowly, slowly. But I got an Obie [in 1962] for Mann Ist Mann, a [Bertolt] Brecht play that was done on 42nd Street, in one of those theaters, and that kind of got my foot in the door. AVC: Did you always have a desire to jump in front of the camera, or was that just incidental? OD: No, I always interested in theater. I didn’t know anything about acting—or very little—for the theater when I went back to graduate school, so I had to learn. I didn’t know about show business. I was interested in having these extraordinary experiences in plays. It was kind of a way of finding out who I was. The play was the vehicle through which I found out who I was. I got to tap into whatever the play was asking me to tap into. So it became a way to self-discovery. It was an interesting time. Movies, though, I never even thought about. I just wanted to play the great parts. And I have, actually. The Wanderers (1979)—“Joey’s Mom” OD: Oh, yeah! That was an interesting movie to do, because it was fraught with tension on the set. I mean, I didn’t have that much experience in working on movies at the time, but I just couldn’t believe how tense everybody was, and how everybody was kind of watching their flanks. It was really interesting. That was the first time I looked at ambition running amuck. [Laughs.] AVC: Was that just because it was a whole crowd of up-and-comers trying to one-up each other? OD: Yeah. I mean, that’s a wonderful energy, actually. But it’s also wearying. Moonstruck (1987)—“Rose Castorini” OD: Oh, yeah, well, what made that fabulous was [director] Norman Jewison. And the writing. It was quite a unique little experience I had there. Not that I thought anything was going to come of it. As a matter of fact, one day we were sitting around talking, and somebody asked Cher what she thought was going to happen, and she gave it the thumbs-down. [Laughs.] Nobody really expected too much out of it. And then look what happened. And that’s because we were all stupid and didn’t understand what Norman Jewison was really doing. The guy’s incredible, you know? And I actually knew it when I was there. He never talked about acting. For one scene, he came up to me and said, “That one line in there… Can you just throw that away a little bit more?” And that was it. But he knew that if I was gonna do that, then the whole thing was going to change. And instead of talking about that change, he just figured out what was going to happen if I did it. That’s pretty fabulous. He was something else. AVC: Do you remember when everybody started to realize that the film was something? OD: Well, you know, we were in the car, [Jewison] and I, and he had asked me to come to a benefit for him in Canada. He was going to show the movie, and he wanted me to come. And I was so grateful to him for that experience and so admiring of him that I went. And he said, “You know, you’re gonna get an Academy Award for this.” I looked at him like he was stark-raving mad. I thought, “This little movie and that little Italian lady are gonna get an award?” I said, “You really think so?” He said, “Yeah!” I thought, “He’s just being nice because I came up here to do the benefit for him.” [Laughs.] “He thinks he has to say something nice to me.” And then all that happened. It was just amazing. The writer [John Patrick Shanley] got it, I got it, and then Jewison didn’t get it. Can you imagine? AVC: At this point, I believe I’m required to ask where you keep your Oscar. OD: Well, I’m sitting in my office right now, and over on the fourth shelf of the bookshelf, it’s up there with the comedy thing [an American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Female Performer–Motion Picture Or TV] and… the Golden Globe [for Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role In A Motion Picture] is on the third shelf, for some strange reason. But there’s also a Cable ACE Award [for The Last Act Is A Solo] up there and… well, anyway, a bunch of stuff is up there. So it’s up there with its buddies. [Laughs.] The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)—Herself (uncredited) OD: Oh, Leslie Nielsen! I… vaguely remember that movie. But did I play myself? I don’t think so. That’s the last thing I would ever do! [Laughs.] AVC: Well, in fairness, all you really did was walk onstage and present an award. OD: The Naked Gun 33 1/3… Oh, Lord. I barely remember it, I have to be honest with you. The Equalizer (1986)—“Judge Paula G. Walsh” Center Of The Universe (2004-05)—“Marge Barnett” OD: The Equalizer? Where are you pulling these things from? AVC: I try to keep people guessing. OD: [Adopts a Southern accent.] I played a judge. I remember that one pretty vaguely, too. We’ve practically had a world war since then! What’s the matter with you? [Laughs.] I didn’t do much episodic TV, because I wasn’t much good at episodic TV. I tried to do a series, though. My husband shamed me into it. He said, “You always say you want to do these things to learn. Why don’t you do one of these series and learn about that?” He wanted me to take it because it was a lot of money! [Laughs.] That’s why he wanted me to do it! It was with John Goodman and Ed Asner. It was called Center Of The Universe, and it was unbelievable, it was so painful. I finally decided that the reason the universe had sent this to me was because I had to figure out how to live with humiliation! Ed Asner said to me once, “The problem is that you come here to act.” I looked at him like he was crazy. He said, “No, no, no. You come here to have a good time. That’s what this is about. Just come and have a good time!” And I tried to do that! Actually, it helped a little. It did help a little! But John Goodman was punching holes in the scenery, he was so upset. I mean, it was really wild, wild, wild. Fortunately, it didn’t last that long. AVC: Well, at least you got the experience. OD: Yeah, the experience of how to live with humiliation! [Laughs.] You know things are bad when your friends call you up and say, “You know, you’re the best thing in the show.” I thought, “Oh, my God, it must be really bad if they have to prop me up like that!” Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City (1993) / Armistead Maupin’s More Tales of the City (1998) / Further Tales Of The City (2001)—“Anna Madrigal” OD: Oh, now, see, that’s my favorite of all! That’s the one! AVC: With that project, did you have to audition, or did they come looking for you? OD: No, Armistead’s partner at the time woke up and told him, “You’ve got to cast Olympia Dukakis!” He had a dream about me and saw me in the part. Can you believe it? It was like magic! [Laughs.] But that’s how it happened. It was really a fabulous experience. Of course, I knew nothing about [being transgender]. Me and millions of other people knew nothing about it. So I started to read biographies. There were only two of them out there at the time. One was by a Danish person, and another was by an American. So I read about it as much as I could, about how treacherous it was. The journey. The passage was. I mean, really painful and difficult, psychologically and physically, with the operation. But when I finally got on the set, I turned to the producer and said, “Look, I’ve got to talk to somebody. I’ve got to talk to a human being who’s gone through this.” So they did that for me. They found someone. She came, and when she opened the door, she was, like, 6’2”, with hands that could wrap around a football, but a soft voice. Lovely breasts. She walks into the room, she sits down, and… she was a sex therapist, and she evidently helps people with these transitions. And I asked her, “What was it that you wanted so much that made it possible for you to go through this incredible journey? I mean, I’ve read about it, but…” And this is what she said to me: “All my life, I yearned for the friendship of women.” And I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. I don’t know what I expected her to say, but not that. And that I knew. And I totally understood. To have your voice silenced, to not be able to be able to speak and be who you are… Who doesn’t know about that? So that’s how I was able to play Anna Madrigal. And it meant a great deal to me to be able to do it, personally. And eventually I understood what it meant out there in the world. I didn’t know there were all these individuals who felt so… acknowledged. I mean, I had no idea what it would mean to people. I only thought in terms of my work and my acting. So then I obviously became involved in fundraising and publicity and so forth, but… that affected me. Not only as an actress, but as a human being living my life. Yeah, that was an important one. Mighty Aphrodite (1995)—“Jocasta” OD: That was the Woody Allen thing, right? Yeah, I did that ’cause it was two tickets to Sicily, and I went with my husband. AVC: There’s nothing wrong with that. OD: No, there’s not. Death Wish (1974)—“Cop at the Precinct” (uncredited) AVC: You’re technically uncredited, but… did you play a cop in Death Wish? OD: I did! I did! And the lead detective in the film was my husband in Moonstruck, Vincent Gardenia! I was the room with him. And I remember we shot it at the Public Theater, in one of the big rooms or something. AVC: Was that a case where you were already in New York and the part just happened to be available? OD: Yeah, they sent me over, and the director [Michael Winner] was, uh, not necessarily liked by the actors. I mean, he made me turn around, and he wanted to see me, and… he treated me like a piece of meat during the audition. But it was, like, one day, so I could take the money and go home and say, “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.” [Laughs.] You can’t put that on, I suppose. AVC: Sure we can. It’s the Internet. Why not? OD: Oh, okay, then put it on! [Laughs.] I don’t care. It’s true! It happened! It‘s not very flattering, but there it is. AVC: It kind of rounds you out as a character. OD: It’s a laugh! It makes me laugh about myself. Look, we had three kids. I wasn’t going to let his stupidity and rudeness deprive me of the money. We needed the money. Steel Magnolias (1989)—“Clairee Belcher” AVC: You’ve been a part of several great ensemble films, but Steel Magnolias is definitely among the most popular. Is there a particular moment that stands out for you? OD: I think on the bench with Shirley [MacLaine], when I was poking her. She couldn’t believe it. She finally pushed me off the bench, and I was laughing. That was all ad-libbed. Working Girl (1988)—“Personnel Director” OD: Oh, yeah! You know, it’s interesting how that all happened. I did a play at the Public Theater—I think it was The Marriage Of Bette And Boo—and Nora Ephron saw me in that, and she told Mike Nichols, and he put me in the film they were working on [Heartburn], but they cut me out of that movie. But he liked me, and he called me in to audition for the Jewish mother in [the play] Social Security. I went in, I got the part, and that’s what Norman Jewison saw me in that led to Moonstruck. And I had said in some interview that I owed Mike Nichols, that I tracked it back to him, and he called me up and wanted me to do that day’s work as payback. [Laughs.] So that’s why I did it, not because the part was anything. I thought, “He‘s right. I do owe him!” Bored To Death (2010-11)—“Belinda” OD: I don’t know how I found my way into Bored To Death, but thank God: it was wonderful! I mostly worked with Zach [Galifianakis], but I did work a little with Jason [Schwartzman]. And then this year I did a movie with Jason. It’s called 7 Chinese Brothers, and it’s a terrific movie. We improvised the whole time. I mean, we must’ve done eight to 12 takes… and I hate to do takes. But I didn’t even know how many we’d done at the time, because we were having such a great time. AVC: It sounds like Bored To Death was the polar opposite of Center Of The Universe. OD: Oh, yeah, that was good. I loved it. What happens with people who are, like, stand-up comics, they don’t really laugh. They look at you and they say, “That’s funny. That’s funny.” That’s what Zach would do. I remember doing something on the floor, writhing and carrying on, and when it over, he said, “That was funny, Olympia.” That’s all. Just, “That’s funny.” So, yeah, I had a good time. I was on the second and third seasons, and I worked a couple of weeks on each. Look Who’s Talking (1989) / Look Who’s Talking Too (1990) / Look Who’s Talking Now (1993)—“Rosie” OD: They had hired me for that prior to the Academy Awards, and they said that if I got the Academy Award, they’d pay me $50,000 to do that. I remember the figure exactly. So that was my first job right after I got the Academy Award. Or maybe it was Working Girl. But I liked the director so much. Amy Heckerling, she was terrific. She didn’t do the third one, but she did the first two. Cloudburst (2011)—“Stella” AVC: Is there a favorite project that you’ve worked on over the years that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved? OD: Whoa, what a question! [Laughs.] Probably Cloudburst. Oh, it’s a terrific film. A terrific film! It’s done great in Europe, but they screwed it here. Kimmel Entertainment wouldn’t sell it to distributors. They made a quick sale. It went to Lifetime, who put it on at 3 in the morning. What happened is that the guy on Kimmel who liked it died, and they passed it on to somebody else, and that’s what happened. That’s what I understand, anyway. Maybe it’s even darker and stupider than that. I don’t know. But that film is one, and Tales From The City. PBS refused to show it because of Jesse Helms. That, I thought, was outrageous. And what they did was, they took that series that Helen Mirren did about the detective [Prime Suspect], which was fabulous, a terrific series, but that was about pedophilia and this, that, and the other thing. And they couldn’t show two guys who loved each other and had fun with each other? Unbelievable. I really did as much yelling about that as I possibly could at the time. But it didn’t do any good. AVC: In Cloudburst, you and Brenda Fricker had great on-screen chemistry. OD: Oh, we did. We had a great time together. Her character dies at the end of it, and… the journey that both women take is so interesting. [Thom Fitzgerald] is going to do a sequel called Sunrise. [Hesitates.] Sunburst? I don’t know. Either Sunburst or Sunrise. Cloudburst? Sunburst? Who knows? He may even change that. I don’t even think he’s written it yet. Sinatra (1992)—“Dolly” Young At Heart (1995)—“Rose Garaventi” OD: Oh, Sinatra. You know, I turned that part down twice. AVC: Really? OD: Yeah. And then they came back with so much money that I’m embarrassed to even tell you what it was. I’d thrown it into the wastepaper basket. [Laughs.] And my assistant at the time, who dines out on this story, [remembers] when they came back with this extraordinary amount of money, I said, “You know, I think the universe wants me to do this, so I think I’d better do it.” The reason I didn’t want to do it, though, was because I didn’t think there was a part there. I could do it, but there was no beginning, no middle, and no end. Because, you know, he had a mother, and they had to put her in. She was something of a force in his life. So I thought, “What am I gonna do? How am I gonna approach it?” So I thought, “Well, she has to sound like she’s from Jersey.” So I had a friend who was married to a woman who had a very strong Italian New Jersey accent, so I went over to her and said, “Read all these lines for me!” And I recorded them, and I learned the accent. [Laughs.] And that got me a nomination for a Golden Globe, if you can believe it. AVC: Did you have any interaction with Sinatra himself? OD: Oh, I did. But not on that. I know the person who wanted me to do that, though, was Sinatra. They would never have come up with that money if it hadn’t been Sinatra. His daughter Tina produced a movie [Young At Heart] in which he makes an appearance at the very end, and he came in with a Winnebago, with a big bar in the Winnebago. It was amazing. He was wonderful, very convivial on the set. But he couldn’t remember his line. His line was one word: “No.” And he couldn’t remember it. He had… It wasn’t Alzheimer’s, but he had something where there was a shortage of oxygen going to the brain. I don’t know, they tried to explain it to me. But he was very sweet. When we finished the scene, he came over to me and, by way of telling me it had been very good, he said, “Look, I’ve got a little money. You wanna run away?” [Laughs.] That was his way of telling me that he thought it went really well.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Long-time fans of the Raspberry Pi will know that we were inspired to make a programmable computer for kids by our own experiences with a machine called the BBC Micro, which many of us learned with in the 1980s. This post is the first of what’s going to be an irregular series where I’ll walk you through building the sort of game we used to play when we were kids. You’ll need a copy of BeebEm (scroll down for a Linux port if you’re using a Pi – but this tutorial can be carried out on a PC or Mac as well as on an original BBC Micro if you have access to one). I’m going to be presenting the next game in this series, tentatively titled Eben Goes Skiing, at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge at 2pm this afternoon – head on down if you’d like to learn how to make scrolling ascii moguls. Helicopter tutorial We’re going to build a simple helicopter game in BBC BASIC. This will demonstrate a number of neat features, including user-defined characters, non-blocking keyboard input using INKEY, and positioning text and graphics using PRINT TAB. Let’s start with user-defined characters. These provide us with an easy way to create a monochrome 8×8-pixel image by typing in 8 small numbers. As an example, let’s look at our helicopter sprite: Each column pixel position in a row is “worth” a different power of 2, from 1 for the rightmost pixel up to 128 for the leftmost. To generate our 8 numbers, we process one row at a time, adding up the value for each occupied pixel position. We can now create custom character number 226 using the VDU 23 command. To display the character, we change to a graphics mode using the MODE command and display it using the PRINT command. Type the following: 10MODE 2 70VDU 23,226,0,248,32,116,126,116,112,0 RUN PRINT CHR$(226) You should see the little helicopter on the screen just above your prompt. Let’s define some more characters for our game, with character numbers 224 through 229. These represent leftward and rightward flying birds, a rightward flying helicopter, the surface of the sea, and a landing pad. Type the following: 50VDU 23,224,0,14,12,104,16,28,8,0 60VDU 23,225,0,112,48,22,8,56,16,0 80VDU 23,227,0,31,4,46,126,46,14,0 90VDU 23,228,0,102,255,255,255,255,255,255 100VDU 23,229,255,255,0,0,0,0,0,0 Trying running your program and using print to view the new characters! Now we’re ready to use our sea and platform characters to build the game world. Mode 2 on the BBC Micro has 20 character positions across, and 32 down. We’ll draw 20 copies of the sea character in row 30 (remember, rows and columns are numbered from zero) using a FOR loop and the PRINT TAB command, and pick a random position for the platform using the RND() function. Type the following: 110FOR I%=0 TO 19 120PRINT TAB(I%,30) CHR$(228); 130NEXT 140P%=RND(20)-1 150PRINT TAB(P%,30) CHR$(229); RUN You should see something like this: Don’t worry about that cursor and prompt: they won’t show up in the finished game. It’s time to add the helicopter. We’ll create variables X% and Y% to hold the position of the helicopter, and Z% to tell us if it last moved left or right. We’ll initialise X% to a random position, Y% to the top of the screen, and Z% to zero, meaning “left”. We can use PRINT TAB again to draw the helicopter (either character 226 or 227 depending on Z%) at its current position. The whole thing is wrapped up in a REPEAT loop, which keeps executing until the helicopter reaches the ground (in row 29). Type the following: 160X%=RND(20)-1:Y%=0:Z%=0 180REPEAT 260PRINT TAB(X%,Y%) CHR$(226+Z%); 290UNTIL Y%=29 RUN You’ll see the helicopter sitting at the top of the screen. We’re almost there: let’s give our helicopter the ability to move left, right and down. On each trip round the loop, we move down one row, and use the INKEY() function to read the Z and X keys on the keyboard. If Z is pressed, and we’re not already at the left of the screen, we move one column left. If X is pressed, and we’re not already at the right of the screen, we move one column right. Type the following: 210IF INKEY(-98) AND X%>0 THEN X%=X%-1:Z%=0 220IF INKEY(-67) AND X%<19 THEN X%=X%+1:Z%=1 230Y%=Y%+1 RUN You should see something like this: The game is much, much too fast to control, and the helicopter leaves trails: not surprising, as we didn’t do anything to erase the previous frame. Let’s use PRINT TAB to place a “space” character over the previous position of the helicopter, and add an empty FOR loop to slow things down a bit. Type the following: 190PRINT TAB (%,Y%)""; 280FOR I%=1 TO 200:NEXT RUN Much better! This is starting to feel like a real game. Let’s finish it off by: Adding a bird that flies back and forth Detecting whether you hit the pad or not Getting rid of the annoying cursor using a “magic” VDU 23 command Putting an outer loop in to let you play again Type the following: 20REPEAT 30CLS 40VDU 23,1,0;0;0;0; 170A%=RND(18):B%=10:C%=RND(2)-1 200PRINT TAB(A%,B%) ""; 240A%=A%+2C%-1 250IF A%=0 OR A%=19 THEN C%=1-C% 270PRINT TAB(A%,B%) CHR$(224+C%); 300IF X%=P% PRINT TAB(6,15) "YOU WIN" ELSE PRINT TAB(6,15) "YOU LOSE" 310PRINT TAB(4,16) "PRESS SPACE" 320REPEAT UNTIL INKEY(-99) 330UNTIL FALSE RUN And here it is in all its glory. You might want to try adding some features to the game: collision with the bird, things to collect, vertical scrolling. The sky’s the limit! I created a full version of the game, using graphics from our very own Sam Alder, for the Hackaday 1K challenge; you can find it here. Appendix Here’s the full source for the game in one block. If you get errors when you run your code, type: MODE 0 LIST And compare the output very carefully with what you see here. 10MODE 2 20REPEAT 30CLS 40VDU 23,1,0;0;0;0; 50VDU 23,224,0,14,12,104,16,28,8,0 60VDU 23,225,0,112,48,22,8,56,16,0 70VDU 23,226,0,248,32,116,126,116,112,0 80VDU 23,227,0,31,4,46,126,46,14,0 90VDU 23,228,0,102,255,255,255,255,255,255 100VDU 23,229,255,255,0,0,0,0,0,0 110FOR I%=0 TO 19 120PRINT TAB(I%,30) CHR$(228); 130NEXT 140P%=RND(20)-1 150PRINT TAB(P%,30) CHR$(229); 160X%=RND(20)-1:Y%=0:Z%=0 170A%=RND(18):B%=10:C%=RND(2)-1 180REPEAT 190PRINT TAB(X%,Y%) " "; 200PRINT TAB(A%,B%) " "; 210IF INKEY(-98) AND X%>0 THEN X%=X%-1:Z%=0 220IF INKEY(-67) AND X%<19 THEN X%=X%+1:Z%=1 230Y%=Y%+1 240A%=A%+2C%-1 250IF A%=0 OR A%=19 THEN C%=1-C% 260PRINT TAB(X%,Y%) CHR$(226+Z%); 270PRINT TAB(A%,B%) CHR$(224+C%); 280FOR I%=1 TO 200:NEXT 290UNTIL Y%=29 300IF X%=P% PRINT TAB(6,15) "YOU WIN" ELSE PRINT TAB(6,15) "YOU LOSE" 310PRINT TAB(4,16) "PRESS SPACE" 320REPEAT UNTIL INKEY(-99) 330UNTIL FALSE	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
In August 2011, Uri Rafaeli bought a three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot home in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Mich., for $60,000. He converted the fixer-upper into a rental property. Two-and-a-half years later – and at the time unbeknownst to the retired engineer – Oakland County seized his property, put it up for auction and sold the house for $24,500. All this, after a mistake in calculating his property taxes left Rafaeli’s account delinquent by just $8.41. Oakland County ended up keeping all of the $24,500 from the sale, while Rafaeli, now 83, was left without the home and the income he made from renting it. Rafaeli’s stunning case, which is at the heart of a legal battle currently being considered before Michigan’s Supreme Court, is an extreme example. Yet it is hardly unique: more than 100,000 homeowners in the state have fallen victim to an aggressive property tax law that legislators in Lansing passed two decades ago. Similar statutes have been passed in more than a dozen other states. 'You have a situation where a person owed $8 and lost their house. I mean, how is that equitable?' — Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein Act 123 of 1999 was meant to speed up the redevelopment of blighted properties amid Michigan’s economic woes, but critics of the statute say it has allowed county officials to act as debt collectors and line their coffers by retaining the excess revenue made by selling houses with unpaid property taxes -- no matter how paltry the debt. HOMEOWNER CENSORS HALLOWEEN DECORATION AFTER HOA DISAPPROVES OF DISPLAY “When the government takes property to settle a debt, they have to give the extra money they make back to you,” Christina Martin, a lawyer with the Pacific Legal Foundation who is representing Rafaeli in his case against Oakland County, told Fox News. “It doesn’t matter what law Michigan passes, they have the constitutional obligation to pay back any more than they are owed.” In a recent op-ed for The Detroit News, Rafaeli said he was "shocked and angry" over the county's actions. "Soon I would learn that while I had signed up for a piece of the American Dream with my investment, I was entering a bureaucratic nightmare — all thanks to Michigan’s Draconian tax forfeiture laws, which I’m now challenging in court," he wrote. At the core of Martin’s argument is a clause in the Fifth Amendment, which states that the government cannot take a citizen’s private property for public use, “without just compensation.” In the case before the Michigan Supreme Court, Martin argued that Oakland County has violated both the state and U.S. constitutions under the Takings Clause by seizing and selling Rafaeli’s property and then failing to recoup him any of the money made from the sale. Martin added that even if the county had paid Rafaeli the extra $24, 491.59 that it made from the sale of his property, that money still pales in comparison to what the retired engineer really lost given that he paid $60,000 for the house, pumped thousands more into fixing it up and has lost years of rent he could have collected were the property still in his possession. Property values in Southfield have also skyrocketed since Rafaeli bought the home in 2011 for $60,000, with estimates currently valuing the house at more than double what he paid. “The money the county made falls far short for Mr. Rafaeli,” Martin said. “In Mr. Rafaeli’s case, he should get much more than that.” LUXURY BUILDINGS BRING ELEVATOR PRIVACY TO THE NEXT LEVEL Rafaeli’s tax woes started about a year after he purchased the house in Southfield when he was notified that he had underpaid his 2011 property taxes by $496. In the meantime, he had continued making the following property tax payment on time, and in January 2013 he attempted to settle the outstanding debt he had with Oakland County. But due to a mistake he made in calculating his interest, he was short of paying off his balance by $8.41. The bill eventually grew to $285 with penalties and interest. The Oakland County Treasurer’s Office attempted to collect the debt a number of times – sending mailed notifications to both the property in Southfield and to an address it had for Rafaeli in Michigan. But Rafaeli had by that time moved out of state, and his tenants in Southfield did not forward the notices. In February 2014, the property was eventually seized by the county and was one of 11,000 homes put up for auction. Rafaeli, however, was unaware that his property was no longer his property and continued to pay property taxes even after it was seized, his lawyers said. He only became aware that something was amiss when he stopped receiving rent payments from his tenants – who no longer resided at the seized home. “You shouldn’t have to rely on the mercy of a tax collector to have your constitutional rights protected,” Martin said. “No amount of mail should allow the government to steal your property.” SUPREME COURT LETS SANDY HOOK FAMILIES' LAWSUIT AGAINST GUNMAKER PROCEED After discovering that his property had been seized and sold, Rafaeli and his family hired local lawyers to help him regain either his house or his money. These efforts, however, proved fruitless as his case – in which his lawyers argued that his due process rights had been violated – was first dismissed by the Oakland County Court and later the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against him, citing the state’s civil forfeiture laws. It was here that Martin and the Pacific Legal Foundation stepped in to help – petitioning the Michigan Supreme Court. The state’s high court granted Rafaeli’s case a review after Martin argued that his constitutional rights were violated under the Takings Clause. The Oakland County Treasurer’s Office declined Fox News’ request for comment, but in a written brief to the court, the county’s lawyers argue that “by failing to pay back taxes and failing to redeem the property before auction, the taxpayer no longer possesses an interest for the government to ‘take.’” The brief also noted that Rafaeli was given “numerous notice provisions and opportunities” to pay his balance. William Horton and John Bursch, the county’s attorneys, contested Martin’s assertion that the county’s actions violated the Takings Clause – saying in the brief that “tax collections are not the taking of private property for public use in the constitutional sense” and that Martin’s argument is similar to ones previously shot down by courts across the country. “This is hardly the first time that a delinquent taxpayer has brought a claim to recover the ‘surplus’ proceeds in a tax sale,” the lawyers said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In court last week, Bursch argued that a ruling in favor of Rafaeli would set a precedent that could ultimately bankrupt Michigan counties by forcing local governments to compensate all homeowners in similar situations. He estimated it would cost around $2 billion. Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein did not appear to agree with the county lawyer’s assessment of the situation. "The interpretation you gave was very dramatic: that this is going to end schools, and the counties are going to crumble, and society is just going to implode," Bernstein said. "You have a situation where a person owed $8 and lost their house. I mean, how is that equitable?" Rafaeli's case will be decided sometime before the end of July 2020. Martin hopes that a ruling in favor of Rafaeli will not just be a victory for the 83-year-old retiree, but will set a precedent in Michigan and across the nation -- possibly leading to a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on a similar case in the future. There are 14 other states in the U.S. that have statutes on the books similar to Michigan, and five of those states – Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts and Nebraska – allow private investors to make money off the sale of foreclosed homes. “The government should not be making a windfall ... when collecting unpaid taxes,” she said. “This is a practice that needs to come to an end.”	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Article content continued “Everybody follows your words very carefully, and I don’t know if you’re doing it by design, but the previous governor had his forward guidance policy but he was also extremely measured and aware that every single word he said was taken very seriously,” James Rajotte, the committee chair, told Poloz. “Are you by design trying to shock the markets occasionally with these words…? Because I think it is having that effect.” Poloz conceded in January the cut would catch some traders by surprise but it was necessary to move early because of the swift effect the price crash was having on oil-exporting Canada. The market then began to price in another rate cut but the bank held tight in March. “It’s certainly not our intent to surprise or to frighten people,” Poloz said on Tuesday. The central banker said he characterized the first quarter as “atrocious” to assure the market that the Bank of Canada was taking this into account and would not therefore necessarily have to cut rates. “We wanted markets to understand that we already believed that the quarter was going to look quite poor so, in that context, the markets would therefore not be doubling up on their bets that the Bank of Canada would need to do further actions,” Poloz said. The Canadian dollar initially fell after his use of “atrocious” in late March, reacting also to weaker oil prices at the time. Poloz said optimistic signals on exports, consumption and business investment lends confidence that the January cut, which it deemed “insurance” against the oil shock, would be sufficient. © Thomson Reuters 2015	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
You'll have plenty to celebrate when you subscribe to the Liverpool FC newsletter Sign me up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email Adam Lallana will try to push through a move to Liverpool now that his World Cup dream with England is over. Roy Hodgson’s side will be returning home from Brazil after Tuesday’s match against Costa Rica and the Southampton midfielder will have to reiterate to club officials at St Mary’s that he wants to call time on his Saints career. Given his long association with the south coast club who he has been with since he was 12, the 26-year-old is reluctant to hand in a formal transfer request but the current impasse between his current employers and the Reds over a fee may ensure he has to force the issue. Liverpool FC have had an improved offer of £25million for Lallana rejected by Saints who are playing hardball over their most prized asset given that his former club Bournemouth would receive 25% of any fee. Although publicly Lallana does not want his 14-year spell with Southampton to end bitterly, privately he believes that the time is right in his career to move on and despite being a childhood Evertonian he would be keen to discuss a move to Anfield. Southampton are holding out for a £30million fee but Liverpool would be willing to include Fabio Borini in a deal as a makeweight after the Italian striker spent last season on loan at Sunderland. The two clubs have already done business this summer when the Reds purchased Rickie Lambert for £4million but a further complication could be Brendan Rodgers’ pursuit of another of Lallana’s team-mates, Croatian defender Dejan Lovren who is now a £15million target for Tottenham. For all the latest Liverpool FC news click here	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom welcomed the launch of the market, which will deliver up to £200 million of benefits to the economy and water customers over the next 30 years, through improved service and better value for money. By opening the market, companies ranging from businesses with very few employees to multinationals, as well as charities and public sector organisations, will be able to shop around for the best deal from all water utilities in England. Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom said: “Over a million businesses, charities and public sector organisations will now be able to find the water deal that works best for them. Opening the market is an historic milestone, paving the way for innovation and efficiency and giving customers the same choice over their water retailer as they currently have for their energy and other essential services.” Defra has worked with partners Ofwat, which will regulate the new market, and Market Operator Services Ltd (MOSL), which will operate the market on behalf of its water company members, to ensure there is a smooth transition for customers. Ofwat Chief Executive Cathryn Ross said: “Business customers have been crying out for choice over their provider of water and waste water services for years. Today businesses, charities and public sector organisations in England will be able to choose their retailer will be able to use that choice to get a better deal. “The opening of the business retail market takes us into new territory. The new market will be more dynamic and unpredictable. It is the single biggest change to the water sector since privatisation and I am hugely optimistic about the changes that lay ahead and the benefits they will bring to customers. But it is important that we at Ofwat maintain effective oversight of how the new market is working and what customers are experiencing. This will mean that we can step in if we need to, to make sure customers are protected.” MOSL Chief Executive Ben Jeffs said: “Today’s launch marks the successful delivery of the largest and most complicated transformation programmes undertaken by the water sector since privatisation. Delivering a programme of this scale and complexity has involved a huge team effort across Government, Ofwat and the entire industry. “Competition not only offers non-household customers the prospect of a better price for a better service, it will create new opportunities and challenges for the sector as a whole. The level of engagement we have had to date has been exemplary and, as the market operator, we look forward to working with companies to ensure the new market delivers on its promise to customers.” The new market in England now becomes the biggest of its kind in the world and Defra will continue to support the water sector as the market develops. Scotland is the only other country with a competitive water market for businesses and this government has been working closely with its Scottish partners in the lead-up to the opening to draw from their learnings and expertise.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
I had a chat (registration required, and yes I’ve heard every argument against that) with Markus ‘Notch’ Persson for my day job recently, and was rather taken with one particular observation he made about the current state of PC gaming. To crudely paraphrase: the big publishers pissing off to console because they thought the PC wasn’t as lucrative as platform as they’d like actually turned out to be a good thing. With all the sound and fury of big, PC-specific, graphically intensive games gone, there was space for something new – something better, I’d argue – to come through. Leading on from that, I’d like to thank the graphics card companies for making such a right royal mess of the PC. I’m not being sarcastic. They did us a favour. Here’s the quote I’m on about: The games industry started moving away from PC and into console a lot. While there are a few hardcore PC studios around, most of it seems to be focused on the console versions. They only really port the PC versions. The indie market really could blossom because people started realising that we’re actually doing interesting ideas in the indie games. Something like in the early 90s, games that were made by id Software or Epic – small developer teams who actually took chances because they didn’t have huge projects. So the indie scene could blossom; there are a lot of indie games on console too and they’re selling really well as well. But I think it’s one result of the sort of abandonment of PC gaming. The other thing leading on from that, which we touched on very slightlly in the interview, was that perhaps the ‘abandonment’ was caused by gamers feeling to consoles to escape the tyranny of expensive graphics card upgrades, which is a fascinating idea: the vainglorious pursuit of ever more power and speed led to a perhaps inevitable downfall. I’ve blogged (in my biz voice) a little more on that here, but I’d like to be a little more emotive with you trusted souls. Admittedly, my experience of 2001-2007 was coloured by working on PC Format and thus being required to keep up with the pixel-pushing Joneses, but the need for new graphics cards seemed constant. A steady flow of graphically-intensive, milestone titles gave NVIDIA and ATI cue to keep on pumping out ever-faster cards – which in turn led to a weird sort of terror amongst PC gamers both existent and potential. Every year or so, we’d need to splash out again, usually in the form of hundreds of pounds/dollars. It was exhausting. Worse, it was bewildering. The furiously complicated naming conventions the graphics card companies used/use is, as far as I’m concerned, unforgivable, as was the sheer range of different boards available at any one time. Numbers, letters, ‘ultras’ and ‘pros’. Once I kept up, doggedly. Now I don’t care enough to try to. Not only did that overblown marketing vampirism make selecting which was the best card at a given pricepoint incredibly hard work for casual upgraders, it meant sub-par boards were put out with names incredibly similar to decent ones. Just a GS or GT at the end could make all the difference, and you could too easily end up buying an absolute lemon by mistake. What was the purpose? To trap us into endless upgrade cycles from fear and confusion alone? Or was the PC simply such an unregulated Wild West (something that otherwise serves the platform well) that the graphics card companies didn’t really know what they were doing either? Now, it’s all change. Gaming-capable PCs are much cheaper, and few new games require a high-end machine – either because they’re ports of console titles or they’re lo-fi, marvellously interesting indie fare. While I miss being able to decisively say that the PC is the most technologically progressive platform, I wouldn’t swap this age for that one. RPS circa 2004 would probably have been wall-to-wall FPSes. Tedious. Now, with the big publishers off pouring everything into their Call of War Honor on console and the graphics tech companies seeing a dramatic decline in card sales because there’s not much that demands an expensive upgrade, PC gaming is wall-to-wall wondrous unpredictability, left to free-thinkers unbound by technological and budgetary restrictions – which means I can decisively say that the PC is most creatively interesting platform. I haven’t upgraded my graphics card for going on three years. I don’t expect to have to any time soon, unless I’m planning on picking up a ludicrously big, high-res monitor. I don’t see another Crysis on the horizon. And I’m glad. By which I mean a technological landmark of a title, which both fuels and is fuelled by a massed rush for system upgrades. So don’t give that ‘wot about Crysis 2 hurr’ claptrap, bucko.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
EU countries may delay a decision on whether to roll over economic sanctions against Russia, with Italy wanting the bloc’s leaders to make the call at a summit next week, diplomatic sources said today (9 December). Ambassadors from the 28 member states were expected at a meeting today to sign off without any debate on a six-month extension of sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. But with the issue proving divisive amid western efforts to enlist Moscow’s help in resolving the Syrian conflict, Rome said approval should come from European Union leaders who meet in Brussels next Thursday and Friday (17-18 December). “It is all up in the air … It is a matter of where the decision should be taken, with some wanting it to be at next week’s leaders summit,” one source told AFP. “Italy is pushing for it,” the source added. Italian sources confirmed Rome had asked for a discussion on the sanctions because it was an important issue which needed proper consideration. It should not be taken to mean that Italy opposed the sanctions, they said. The wide-ranging economic sanctions targeting Russia’s banking, oil and defence sectors were introduced after the July 2014 shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines jet, blamed on pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. There was now confusion over the next step, the European sources said. “It depends on the Italians who are waiting for a decision by (Premier Matteo) Renzi. It is possible the point will be called up again today or tomorrow or that it goes to the foreign ministers meeting on Monday,” one source said. “We have to wait and see.” The issue has been divisive for the EU with several states including Italy and Germany reluctant to impose sanctions until MH17. Others, such as Poland and the Baltic states who were once ruled from Moscow, take a much harder line, fearing a more assertive Russia. These differences over how best to manage ties with Moscow have re-surfaced as Brussels and Washington try to get Russia on board to end the Syrian war. The EU has also imposed separate travel ban and asset freeze sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian individuals held responsible for backing the rebels, which run to March, and for those involved in Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, which run to June. [Read more]	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
8 players. Lets do one team of 6 and one team of 2. 81,323 shares	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Already saw that post still laughs when you show him 12,136 shares	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Since the shootings, which many church members refer to simply as “the tragedy,” Sunday attendance at Emanuel has been bolstered by a steady flow of visitors, black and white, who come to commune and pay their respects. But much of the core membership of Mother Emanuel, as the church is affectionately known, has been dislocated far from downtown by rapid gentrification in the city. That has created some fiscal challenges for the church, and Pastor Manning said he was determined not to let the memorial become a recurring burden. “We will want to have the best possible support from the community, and dare we even say, the world,” he said. “This memorial will not just remind the congregation of what we have gone through but also remind the world that forgiveness is, of course, very important.” Mr. Arad has made about a dozen trips to Charleston in the last year to study the Emanuel site and the city’s distinctive architecture. He has also consulted at length with the congregation’s leadership, the survivors and families of the victims. Consensus on the design was not immediate, but it came. The planning of the Emanuel memorial coincides with a nationwide movement, inspired in part by the massacre, to rid public spaces of statues, monuments and names that honor the Confederacy. Mr. Roof’s association with Confederate symbols prompted South Carolina’s governor and Legislature to remove the Confederate battle flag from a pole on the state Capitol grounds in Columbia three years ago. That led to similar efforts across the country, toppling Robert E. Lee from his pedestal in New Orleans and rebranding schools named for his lieutenants.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Share This: twitter facebook Report back from antifascist mobilization in Pikeville, Kentucky in the wake of threats from neo-Nazi and Christian supremacist organizations. Just 2 years after white supremacists rallied in Pikeville, Kentucky, the city held its 2nd Annual Pride Festival. No formal announcement was made, but after Legion of Saint Ambrose (LoSA) and other Christian supremacists threatened, stalked, and physically assaulted adults and children at Somerset Pride earlier this month, similar threats were expected at this event as well. A small area within the 1-block park to corral protesters was roped off if they showed; a pen within spitting distance of event seating and public walkways that would have done nothing to keep people safe. Antifascists from multiple states provided security for the event, ready to shut down any verbal or physical attacks. Not one hate preacher or fascist showed up. Instead, what happened was Pride as it should be: a corporate-free, accessible, family-friendly, inclusive celebration where folks of all genders and sexualities could safely spend the day without the obligation to spend money or defend their existence to those who work to harm them. The day kicked off with a more powerful message than is often seen in the larger, more established Pride events: indigenous leadership speaking about the history of the land and the culture, and a welcome reminder that “love is indigenous” and hatred is not and never was welcome here. The ease of this day and the ability of those at the festival to enjoy it without fear is a victory for all of us … When we returned home, though, we were saddened to hear that a comrade, Sean Kealiher, was lost in Portland last night. Few details have been released in the news but it appears they were intentionally hit with a vehicle and killed. The full story isn’t ours to share if we could, and hopefully we will learn more from those who survived the events when they’re ready. But Portland and Sean are on our minds and we hold both a victory and a loss in our hearts simultaneously. Rest in power, Sean! From the holler to Portland, till the end, we go where they go and we intend to win.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
En día de Duarte, Medina llama luchar por «la supervivencia de la Nación» Juan Pablo Duarte y Danilo Medina SANTO DOMINGO.- El presidente Danilo Medina llamó a los dominicanos a “luchar por la supervivencia de la Nación”, al conmemorarse este jueves el 204 aniversario del natalicio de Juan Pablo Duarte, fundador de la República Dominicana. En un comunicado difundido por la Presidencia, el Mandatario manifestó que la lucha para honrar a Duarte “es en pos de que nuestro pueblo logre un efectivo acceso a la educación y de que los servicios de salud alcancen a toda la población”. “Mantengamos un crecimiento económico sostenible, capaz de garantizar una equitativa y justa distribución de los bienes, que aleje de la pobreza a los más vulnerables”, agregó. Dijo que “Duarte es el paradigma para que las nuevas generaciones asuman el compromiso por la Patria, la inspiración y el estímulo ante la necesidad de trabajar por el desarrollo constante de nuestro país”. Añadió que el Patricio “se convirtió en un verdadero apóstol entre el grupo de jóvenes revolucionarios que se unieron a la causa. Y lo hizo para legarnos el derecho de disfrutar de libertad en una sociedad regida por la democracia”. En ese sentido, Medina instó a los dominicanos a que “asuman con responsabilidad el deber cívico de participar en los esfuerzos destinados a superar los difíciles retos que plantea la modernidad. Esto, para evitar que aniquilen los más preciados valores de la dominicanidad”. “Nuestra deuda de gratitud hacia el Padre de la Patria es inmensa”, afirmó el Mandatario, quien valoró los “sacrificios y desvelos del fundador de la República, a quien debemos el privilegio de llamarnos dominicanos y de vivir en un Estado libre e independiente denominado República Dominicana”. Asimismo, resaltó la “trascendencia y generosidad de su entrega en cuerpo y alma a la causa de la Independencia. El precio de su sacrificio fue morir en un inmerecido exilio, desprotegido, sumido en extrema soledad y rodeado tan solo de la precariedad de una pobreza inconcebible”. “¡Honor y gloria a Juan Pablo Duarte, Padre de la Patria!”, concluyó.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Ever wondered how you can deliver security awareness training to staff in your organisation that they will love? In this article, we are revealing the techniques we find useful in our training sessions which should help you get started with your first phishing awareness training session for your organisation. Iron Bastion delivers tailored phishing awareness training to businesses in Australia to raise awareness around phishing and social engineering. Our experience has gained us some insights into and how raise awareness in organisations in effective, fun and informative ways. Why Phishing Needs Special Attention Phishing is the foot in the door to an organisation and usually the initial step in payment redirection scams and Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud. Cybercriminals see small businesses as low hanging fruit because they lack dedicated IT security personnel, immature and ad-hoc business process and staff who do not have the training or experience to deal with computer-based fraud. According to the latest Telstra Security Report, the two most common types of cyber attacks targeting businesses in Australia are phishing attacks and Business Email Compromise (BEC). The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) also reinforces the fact that the majority of data breaches are attributable to phishing. The good news is that the risk of phishing is solvable with the right combination of education, business process changes and anti-phishing technology. Our in-house Experience with Classroom Training We have probably all participated in new hire inductions or security awareness training sessions that bore everyone to death with irrelevant and boring facts, platitudes, and outdated tips. Even though the topic of security awareness may not sound exciting at first, good content will grab your audience’s attention. Just think of the TV series ‘The Office’, a successful show built around the daily errands of a boring paper company in the sleepy town of Scranton. In a similar way to the show, your employees will find your sessions captivating if your content is well written. Remember, “Content is king”, wrote Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 1996, and it is very applicable to in-house training as well. We find the following to tips help us capture the attention of audiences: #1. Make Your Content Relatable First, make your content as familiar as possible. There is nothing more detaching than parroting: old, stale facts of about multi-million dollar cyber heists from over two years ago; case studies, stories from other countries, or unrelated industries. Instead, use a recent article from the local news in the same or similar industry to illustrate why the latest cyber threats are relevant to your organisation. For instance, if your industry is legal services, tell them the fascinating story of how a cyber attack brought the law firm DLA Piper to its knees, globally. Similarly, when a new wave of payment redirection fraud hit the legal sector in Australia last year, we often cited the SMH article elaborating how a particular case of electronic conveyancing fraud left the client, a former MasterChef contestant and her family, homeless. The story piqued our client’s interest because many of them were also using the same e-conveyancing platform and had security concerns. #2. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words Obtain screenshots of actual phishing emails which have targeted your business. Real emails will illustrate why a high-level of vigilance is required, and how outdated tips like ‘always be suspicious of emails written in poor English’ rarely work. A fake email impersonating the CEO (Source: Iron Bastion) A good source of these highly-sophisticated emails can be the email administrators of your company’s IT team. #3. Make Everyone Comfortable Book in a quiet and spacious room for classroom training and allow plenty of time for the Q&A session at the end. We reckon that the best time to start the training is around 10 am, which is the most productive time of the day according to studies. Provide snacks and refreshments to hold everyone’s attention throughout the session. Your presentation segment should not be longer than 45 minutes to prevent the participants from drifting off even though your content is genuinely engaging. A little treat can make a big difference As for the delivery of your content, do not lecture. Be a mentor instead. We find it more engaging when the participants can interrupt us with questions throughout the session. In case you feel overwhelmed by the interruptions or get behind the schedule, politely ask your audience to keep the remaining questions to the end. Remember, your attitude is a little thing that can makes a big difference. Regarding the Q&A session, try to foster a friendly discussion. Your audience will be eager at this point to ask questions. If you cannot answer some of them, do not worry! Perhaps someone else can from the audience. Otherwise, tell the person you will get back to them with your answer within a day. #4. Implement Positive Change the Easy Way Change management is a topic that is broad enough to fill a book. Even with the best of intentions, employees may still resist a positive change if they hate it. To deal with this type of resistance, we like to encourage our class to follow good security practices at home first. Source: changedynamics.biz For instance, credential stuffing is one of the methods criminals get into work mailboxes to commit business email compromise fraud. In short, bad actors take passwords of your staff leaked from previous data breaches and use them to access work emails en masse. Your staff should choose unique passwords everywhere and use password managers to remember them. We like to demonstrate how anyone can protect their personal user accounts. Once everyone sees the value of a variety of good security practices at home, they will follow the same practices in the office as well. For example, personal social media accounts (e.g. Facebook) and game accounts like PlayStation Network and Fortnite are often hijacked with the credential stuffing technique and then sold on the dark web for as low as $2. They are easy targets as people tend to reuse their favourite passwords even when they have been leaked in data breaches. For an individual, it is devastating to lose access to a personal account. So once we establish the dangers of password reuse in the training, we explain how they can prevent this from happening to them and their family. Namely, they should: not reuse any favourite passwords across websites; rely on password managers to remember these unique passwords; and turn on two-factor authentication where the feature is supported. To familiarise the audience with unique passwords and password managers, we hand out vouchers for products like 1Password and let them discover the benefits themselves. Password managers allows anyone to remember hundreds of passwords Similarly, you should demonstrate how two-factor authentication (2FA) can further protect personal accounts from hacking. We like to point the audience to TwoFactorAuth.org, a website showing how to enable 2FA on the most popular online services. A free handout could be a YubiKey device, which makes two-factor authentication easy compared to SMS-based one time codes. The idea is that when you decide to introduce 2FA in the office, you will not be met with any resistance, because everyone is already familiar with the concept of robust authentication technologies and happy with them. #5. Validate Your Results with Phishing Simulation Finally, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Before the training, phishing simulation is a great way to measure your organisation’s exposure to phishing attacks. The benefits are twofold: you can identify members of your staff vulnerable to social engineering; and measure the effectiveness of your training. GoPhish phishing simulation tool is showing the results of a recent campaign (Source: GitHub) We prefer to use actual phishing emails as templates to mimic real-world attacks as close as possible. It is easier than you think to be inspired to develop emails for your phishing campaign because good email templates can be found right in your junk/spam folder. Apart from your mailbox, GitHub is also an valuable source of fresh email templates: To run lifelike simulation campaigns, you can either rely on open source tools (GoPhish, King Phisher) or paid products. The benefit of the latter is the free templates which come with the tools. The paid products also feature phishing awareness e-learning material such as videos and interactive quizzes. Our experience is, however, that nothing beats the face-to-face classroom delivery format for effectiveness. This is why we prefer relying on open source tools and provide real value with the classroom-based training instead. #6. After the Awareness Training Your job is not done when the classroom session ends. We have all participated in meetings where we forgot what everything was about at the moment we leave the room. The good news is that we have a few tricks up in our sleeves to help you achieve a long-term impact. The “forgetting curve” explains why learning is hard (Source: growthengineering.co.uk) Once the awareness session is delivered, we found that a follow-up phishing simulation exercise is an effective way to measure the success of the course. The results are usually staggering, as we typically see a massive drop in the number of people tricked by our fake email versus the numbers before the training. Similarly, you can demonstrate the value of your efforts with a follow-up phishing simulation campaign. Also, you can solidify good security practices by rewarding staff. For example, employees reporting phishing emails to your IT department within the first two weeks should have a chance to win an Amazon gift card. With little incentives like this, you have the best chance of keeping the awareness levels of staff up after training. Everyone loves free gifts (Source: cnet.com) In addition, the security awareness training sessions should be repeated on a regular basis as the positive effects fade away over time. Also, phishing simulation campaigns should be a routine exercise (beside the follow-up exercise) to: keep a general level of security awareness and vigilance; identify new employees (e.g. new hires, contractors, vendors) with challenges to withstand social engineering attempts; identify existing members of staff who may require further education; and raise staff awareness of new types of phishing emails they are likely to receive. Finally, share your slides within your organisation and encourage everyone to use them as a reference guide. If you have the time, you can even write the slides up as an article for the company intranet, which makes your content more accessible for those who could not attend. Conclusion The cybersecurity challenges of today require three key elements be addressed: people, process and technology. Your last defence line when it comes to social engineering is people. Hence, a security awareness training program is an integral part of your cybersecurity efforts. In our experience we recommend: face-to-face classroom training where possible; make the content relatable and use examples of actual phishing emails your organisation has received; encourage positive security practices at home as well as the office; and validate the effectiveness with phishing simulation before and after classroom training. About the Writers This article was co-written with Nicholas Kavadias. Iron Bastion is a cybersecurity company offering phishing awareness training services. We provide a range of services protecting Australian businesses from cyber criminals and digital threats. Contact us today to discuss how our experts can help you prepare your employees to identify and respond to phishing campaigns and social engineering attempts. Also, choose from the wide-range of antivirus and internet security software for work or home in our new webshop.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
What's new in Version 3.33 Bug fixes and enhancements Fixed an issue where the WMTSLayer would apply the TileMatrixSetLimit from the first layer to all layers in the service. BUG-000128380: Fixed an issue where a GeoRSSLayer accessed via http would not display if accessed in an application using https . Additional packages Version 3.33 of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript includes: Additional Resources on GitHub Be certain to check out any updates to the repository on GitHub with TypeScript definitions for the JS API.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Read the full transcript of John Kerry's speech on the Mideast peace process Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Wednesday offered a harsh and detailed assessment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying their growth threatens to destroy the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These are his full remarks on the Mideast peace process. Kerry harshly condemns Israeli settler activity as an obstacle to peace	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Review: 2012-03-31, two exciting rounds and nice TKO victory in the second period: Jorge Linares vs Sergio Thompson gets three stars. Jorge Linares (31-2-0) entered as the No.17 lightweight in the world while Sergio “Yeyo” Thompson (21-2-0) entered as the No.75. Linares vs Thompson is valid as WBC Lightweight Title Eliminator. Watch the video! Date: 2012-03-31 Where: Oasis Hotel Complex, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico Division: lightweight (135 lbs, 61.2 kg) Result: Click here to show the fight’s result Sergio Thompson def. Jorge Linares (TKO at 2:27, round 2) Jorge Linares’ previous fight: Antonio DeMarco vs Jorge Linares [php] include(“banner.php”); [/php] Video:	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
If you’ve ever been asked to create something for free in exchange for “exposure,” you’re not alone. One 2016 survey found that freelancers spent 31 days over the course of two years doing unpaid work. In response, Singapore-based art director, designer, and typographer Jay Liu has developed a project called “Exposure Currency,” which aims to critique the way artists are offered exposure instead of pay. (As we all know, getting tagged on a post doesn’t pay the bills). This series of paper notes exists as a playful imitation of real dollar bills, and employs a striking visual language in the form of neon lettering and in-your-face art direction to bring attention to how often designers and creatives are robbed by companies that think exposure takes the place of cold hard cash. “A creative loses up to $6,620 every year through creating actual work for no pay. But what sort and amount of exposure did the creative earn? The returns are often unclear,” Liu writes. The designer collaborated with copywriter Boston Ho to generate the currency text; bold phrases like “The Note No One Asked For” and “We Don’t Trust” adorn the virtually worthless dollar bills, which, of course, is the point. Exposure Currency is equal parts cautionary tale (for artists) and an attempt to hold businesses accountable. The back of each note reminds everyone of the virtue of proper compensation. “Its visuals are aptly art directed as a heist—on an entire industry,” explains Liu. This project, a rightfully direct critique of unethical labor practices, is a creative approach to starting a conversation on how exposure is simply a form of counterfeit currency—and should be eliminated from circulation immediately.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Recon: Ultimate General Civil War Early Access By James Cobb Testing a new concept with a title of proven popularity is a solid business decision. Game Labs ran Ultimate General Gettysburg up the flag pole and many people saluted. Yet, releasing single RTS brigade-level battles would put the series behind NorbSoft’s Scourge of War series and would be boring. The developers decided instead to “go big or go home” and cover the entire ACW with their new title, Ultimate General Civil War. While still in beta, the Steam Early Access version provides a good idea of what the finished product will be. Easy on the Eyes and Fingers This game’s terrain graphics have some of the earmarks of a Gainsborough landscape, Quilt-pattern fields, sparkling fords and streams, well-defined woods and slopes are done with warm color tones. Waves wash against the coast. Man-made features that include fences, farms, towns and outbuildings are clear and meaningful, giving bonus for cover. Forts in particular are outstanding with glacis, ramparts, huts and bomb-proofs shown. Rarely is terrain so well done in an RTS game. A costal fort appears formidable. Unit icons are not so fancy. In the most zoomed-in view, details of individual men, horses and equipment lack detail. This nit can be overlooked since formations are clear with a “ghost” image indicating a formations’ facing. Selection can be done by clicking on the troops, the shield with their type floating above them with their numeric strength shown or the corresponding shield at the bottom of the screen. Shields flash when units charge or withdraw and routs are obvious. Captured units are white and can be moved to the rear. Animation includes troops going into column or line and smoke spouting from volleys. Test flashes on the screen telling about charges, melee, being flanked and ammunition shortages. Lines show movement paths and line of fire. A small inset in the lower left has bars indicating units’ reload time and supply with percentages for morale, cover and health. The inset also has a portrait of the unit’s commanders and whether he is killed or wounded. The unit’s strength, casualties and kills inflicted can also be found there. The mini-map is clearer than most similar games. The interface is surprisingly simple. Units will deploy automatically from column to line and start firing. Other orders are done by on-screen buttons or shortcut keys: infantry can run, charge, detach and regain skirmishers, withdraw and fall back; cavalry charges and dismounts while artillery unlimbers and holds fire when their craving for ammunition drains supply. Direct movement is a simply click but indirect movement is done by dragging the icons along a route. Combinations of keys rotate units. Stonewall arrives to save the Henry Hill position. The Thousand-Mile Front This interface drives historical battles and a linked campaign. The latest version has nine historical battles from Aquia Creek to Fredericksburg along with twelve interstitial battles for the campaign. The finished product will go to the end of the war with six more historical battles, one hypothetical battle for Washington and eleven more interstitial battles. Each battle can be played from both sides with four levels of difficulty. In the stand-alone battles, players are corps commanders overseeing a number of brigades with the occasional independent skirmishers, artillery and supply wagon. The brigades can be combined into divisions but battles usually require the flexibility provided by separate units. A prologue points out a players’ goals and anticipated enemy moves. The battle begins at the first contact with initially small forces but soon more units become available as the fighting spreads. Thus, an easy yet historical transition in handling large battles allows gamers not to be overwhelmed while still providing a free rein in play. A game that provides brigade level action for all major American Civil War battles is welcome but Ultimate General Civil War is much more than that. The campaign game provides a historically solid RPG aspect not only by linking historical battles via the interstitial quasi-hypothetical clashes that reflect events that led up to the big fights but also by building players’ characters using the elements that civil war officers actually had. Characters have five attributes: politics, logistics, training, army organization and economy. The attributes determine how well players can equip their troops, how many brigades and corps they can command as the war progresses and how well the troops perform. The base scores for these are created by choosing the general’s background; whether he is a tactician, strategist or logistician, whether his background was infantry, cavalry or artillery and what his pre-war experience was - business, politics or the regular army. Depending on which side he fights for, the first two missions represent a small expedition to clear enemy forces from a fort or town and then defending the place. These battles are almost tutorials in game mechanics and tactics but can be challenging. The career can also end here as the character as well as subordinates can be wounded, adversely affecting troop effectiveness, or killed, representing the civil war’s high officer casualty rate. Death or a crushing defeat ends the campaign. Infantry weapons available for purchase are numerous. After a victory, the character receives money and career points commensurate with his performance. Then the scene moves to the Army Camp which is divided into tabs for army, armory, barracks and career. Within the army tab, the status of the brigades along with their armament can be observed. Losses can be replaced with expensive veterans, cheap recruits or a combination of both. If the general’s army management skill is high enough, new brigades of any of the four unit types can be created in an existing division or in a new division. The armory displays the weapons that can be bought for each branch and the weapons on hand from survivors or captured arms. Each weapon has a picture with detailed specifications. The barracks has officers the general can buy from the academy as well as those officers already in the command but unassigned. The career tab shows the player’s history, available funds, reputation and earned career points that can be used to enhance attributes. After re-organizing his force, the player can go to the Battle Maps and choose to fight another smaller battle or go directly to First Bull Run. Alternatively, players can create a custom battle based on a map of a historical engagement. The developers of Ultimate General Civil War are still adding battles, squashing bugs, improving AI and finishing the onscreen manual. The finished product may take a few more months to appear. However, the beta version clearly shows that this game will be a “must buy” for American Civil War game aficionados. Gamers could do worse than get the Early Access version. Why deny yourselves a great experience?	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
@imthatothergoof and me wish you a fucking awesome festive period 🐻❤🐶!	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
"Hmph! What I told you about stick abuse?" "Don't worry, it's metal. So technically it's not a stick." "Mmm. Okay. Fair enough." "Want to join us? It's filled with rock candies. Maud's favorite!" "Well, technically... they're not." "I'm gone." "..... Technically, that's rather rude." "I'm not listening....!" Wonderful work	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Editor’s Note: Austin FC was not part of Tuesday’s news conference, as stated in an earlier version of this story. KXAN regrets its error. Austin (KXAN) — On Tuesday, city and local leaders stood alongside community organizations and representatives from popular events in town to oppose Proposition A. Proposition A will be on the ballot for Austin voters in November. It was driven by a petition effort earlier this year from those opposed to Austin’s new Major League Soccer stadium, which required a lease of city property. Prop. A would require any use of city-owned land for any sports facility or entertainment facility be approved by a supermajority of the council and approved by voters in an election. The event Tuesday marked the launch of the PACE (Parks Art Culture Entertainment) Political Action Committee and the start of the group’s effort to topple Proposition A. Organizations that oppose Prop. A include the Long Center, SXSW, ACL Fest, YMCA, Zach Scott Theater, Trail of Lights, Kite Festival and Austin Symphony. Elected officials who oppose the proposition include Mayor Steve Adler, Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza, Austin City Council Members Natasha Harper-Madison, Greg Casar, Jimmy Flannigan, Kathie Tovo, Alison Alter, Pio Renteria, Ann Kitchen and Paige Ellis. Several AISD trustees and AISD Board president Geronimo Rodriguez oppose Prop A as well. At the press conference Tuesday, Cory Baker, CEO of the Long Center, said that Prop. A is a threat to the Long Center’s ability to serve its mission. “The Long Center is a nonprofit organization and ticket sales alone don’t cover all the costs associated with operating this city asset and world-class venue,” Baker said. “If Proposition A were to pass, the Long Center would be required to start paying the City of Austin fees of over $2.5 million a year.” Proposition A was made possible by the petition efforts of PACs Indy Austin and Fair Play Austin, groups which expressed opposition to Austin’s MLS stadium deal with Austin FC at McKalla Place. Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein was a known opponent of this MLS stadium deal as well as the funder for the Fair Play Austin PAC. However, while Fair Play initially supported the effort to challenge the Austin FC deal, Fair Play Austin PAC sent out a statement on Aug. 19 explaining that Prop. A had “drifted from its original intent” and in its current condition would “do more harm than good.” The PAC said it would not undertake any effort to support the proposition. Francoise Luca, with Friends of McKalla Place, said her group still supports Proposition A. “We still believe the citizens should have a right to vote on how to use public lands and public money,” she said. Luca added that she still has hope that Proposition A could challenge the McKalla Place stadium deal and Austin FC. In a statement to KXAN on Aug. 27, Two Oaks Ventures, which owns Austin FC, said that the development of a soccer park and stadium at McKalla Place would not be affected by Proposition A.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Few evolutions since January on OpenGL drivers support beside actually some new bugs detected thanks to the last OpenGL Samples Pack 4.1.5.0 released few days ago. White: Unsupported. Blue: The sample works but it doesn't follow the OpenGL specification. Green: The sample works following the OpenGL specification. Orange: The sample doesn't work correctly but a workaround is possible. Red: The sample does't work and I haven't found any workaround. Black: Really distubing problem! Drivers: AMD Catalyst 11.1a (26/01/2011) AMD Catalyst 11.2 (15/02/2011) nVidia Forceware 266.58 (18/01/2011) nVidia Forceware 266.77 (17/02/2011) 410-sampler-fetch-dsa-ext 410-program-varying gl_PerVertex redeclaration involves compiler errors... gl_PerVertex redeclaration involves compiler errors... 410-program-separate gl_PerVertex redeclaration involves compiler errors... gl_PerVertex redeclaration involves compiler errors... 410-program-binary Will crash after enough load and save instead of returning GL_FALSE. Will crash after enough load and save instead of returning GL_FALSE. 410-program-64 410-primitive-tessellation-5 gl_PerVertex redeclaration involves compiler errors... gl_PerVertex redeclaration involves compiler errors... 410-primitive-tessellation-2 gl_PerVertex redeclaration involves compiler errors... gl_PerVertex redeclaration involves compiler errors... 410-primitive-instanced Unexpected warning Unexpected warning 410-fbo-rtt-dsa-ext 410-fbo-multisample-dsa-ext 410-fbo-layered Unexpected warning Unexpected warning 410-debug-output-arb AMD_debug_output support only AMD_debug_output support only 400-transform-feedback-object 400-texture-compression-arb 400-texture-buffer-rgb 400-sampler-gather 400-sampler-fetch With some uses of max or clamp, the result is not correct! 400-sampler-array 400-program-varying-structs 400-program-varying-blocks Unexpected warning / gl_in.length() not fully supported Unexpected warning / gl_in.length() not fully supported 400-program-subroutine 400-program-64 400-primitive-tessellation Unexpected warning Unexpected warning 400-primitive-smooth-shading Unexpected warning Unexpected warning 400-primitive-instanced Unexpected warning Unexpected warning 400-fbo-rtt-texture-array 400-fbo-rtt 400-fbo-multisample 400-fbo-layered 400-draw-indirect 400-buffer-uniform Unsupported uniform block array Unsupported uniform block array 400-blend-rtt 330-texture-array Required glTexParameteri to setup filtering, sampler unsupported Required glTexParameteri to setup filtering, sampler unsupported 330-sampler-object Sampler object doesn't always oversede texture parameters Sampler object doesn't always oversede texture parameters 330-fbo-multisample Require to set the filtering to the texture object instead of the sampler object 330-fbo-multisample-custom-resolve Scissor test not disable when requested 330-fbo-mipmaps Scissor test ignored by glClearBuffer Scissor test ignored by glClearBuffer The sampler object remains a mess on AMD which is especially unfortunate as AMD proposed this functionnality. The results of these tests reflect the lack of evolution of OpenGL drivers (since November) which is unlikely considering the number of issues raised by these very simple tests. Drivers: AMD Catalyst 11.1a (26/01/2011) AMD Catalyst 11.2 (15/02/2011) nVidia Forceware 266.58 (18/01/2011) nVidia Forceware 266.77 (17/02/2011) 400-error-sampler-fetch AMD doesn't support the GLSL extension mechanisum AMD doesn't support the GLSL extension mechanisum 330-error-vao A VAO isn't required by nVidia implementation A VAO isn't required by nVidia implementation 330-error-sampler-offset GLSL compiler crash GLSL compiler crash 330-error-sampler-gather AMD doesn't support the GLSL version mechanisum AMD doesn't support the GLSL version mechanisum 330-error-conv Use GLSL 4.10 implicit conventions Use GLSL 4.10 implicit conventions Use GLSL 4.10 implicit conventions Use GLSL 4.10 implicit conventions For OpenGL to reach another level in the interest of programmers it will take at least this step: better handling of errors. It is not enough for a code to work, it should not work and through the approciate error, when it is not expected to work. There is still a lot to do for both AMD and nVidia. When we create an OpenGL context, AMD drivers return many OpenGL context versions however in practice AMD doesn't actually support the GLSL extension or the GLSL version mechanisiums so that effectively I believe that all these versions are exactely same code path. On nVidia, it might be similar but it always report version and extension requirements which is a huge plus for cross-version (eg: 3.3 and 4.1) development. OpenGL requires many things in its environment, including documentation and tools but what remains the first priority, it's speak and span drivers so that OpenGL doesn't stick to a bunch of OpenGL fans (including me!:)) or remains under-used by the programmer masses where 3Dsmax is a perfect example of a good Direct3D renderer next to an old fashion and ways behind OpenGL renderer. (It might have changed since 3Dsmax 2010 but I have some doubts). Drivers: AMD Catalyst 11.1a (26/01/2011) AMD Catalyst 11.2 (15/02/2011) nVidia Forceware 266.58 (18/01/2011) nVidia Forceware 266.77 (17/02/2011) 410-program-varying-gtc A specification fix would be great A specification fix would be great A specification fix would be great A specification fix would be great 410-program-separate-dsa-gtc A debug output warning would be nice A debug output warning would be nice A debug output warning would be nice A debug output warning would be nice 410-fbo-multisample-dsa-gtc glTextureImage2DMultisample not available as specify by OpenGL... glTextureImage2DMultisample not available as specify by OpenGL... glTextureImage2DMultisample not available as specify by OpenGL... glTextureImage2DMultisample not available as specify by OpenGL... 400-sampler-array-gtc Not supported as OpenGL specify... Not supported as OpenGL specify... A GLSL compiler warning would be nice A GLSL compiler warning would be nice 400-buffer-uniform-shared-gtc Not supported as OpenGL specify... Not supported as OpenGL specify... A GLSL compiler warning would be nice A GLSL compiler warning would be nice On the regard of these feature requests/specification bugs, the result hasn't changed since last month. I have added a sample that test the presence of glTextureImage2DMultisample which remains missing and undefined in both implementations as expected. Both AMD and nVidia like to make implementation decision of their own and sometime it's pretty tricky no to do it or it requires a large amount of efforts. I personnally think that this not a bad thing as far as we can ensure, in some ways, maximum OpenGL conformance and what OpenGL is meant for: cross-platform development. I said it in the past either on these pages or on OpenGL.org forums but I think that a way to go is to create propriatary profile where AMD and nVidia could do whatever they want. There is a lot of cases where programmers only develop on nVidia because all the company computer run on nVidia and sometime they even run with the exact same GPU. Using all nVidia can get on such system, sounds like a good choice on such dedicated scenario. I am taking nVidia example because I have an example in mind for this but I guess it could be AMD as well if the drivers keep making progress. Proprietary profile would be another way to promote innovations but the core profile would remain the common aggrement and thus the heart of OpenGL.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant Sur was evacuated on Monday night after a major fire. The West Hollywood eatery was full of diners and staff when the blaze broke out at around 11.30pm. A number of units from the fire department were scrambled to tackle the fire and managed to get it under control. Close call: West Hollywood eatery Sur was full of diners and staff when a blaze broke out at around 11.30pm on Monday night Blaze: Lisa Vanderpump said 'everyone got out safely, thank God' The Los Angeles Fire Department told Radar: 'A fire broke out in the electrical room at Sur last night, causing approximately $50,000 worth of damage.' They confirmed that everyone was evacuated safely and there were no injuries. Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star told the site: 'The fire actually started in the electrical section of building that Sur shares with Chrome Hearts. 'There were a lot of people in the building at the time and luckily a busboy smelled smoke and was able to get to the fire before it got worse,' she said Safe: A number of units from the fire department were scrambled to tackle the fire and managed to get it under control The 56-year-old lauded Vanderpump Rules cast member Jeremy Madix as 'a hero' after the busboy raised the alarm. 'Jeremy smelled smoke, and he saved the day. Everyone got out safely thank God,' she said. 'The fire department came and put it out and we called an electrician. It could have been much worse.' The mother of two owns the business with husband of 35 years Ken Todd. In May, Vanderpump's Beverly Hills restaurant Villa Blanca also caught fire, but again no one was injured. In 2012, a home she sold a year earlier also went up in flames.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Italy's political crisis has deepened over the weekend, with a fresh election in the country now a near certainty. Many commentators now believe that the turmoil in the eurozone's third-largest economy has started to pose a threat to the wider euro area. Markets are spooked, with major European assets selling off aggressively. Business Insider looks at how Italy got to this point of deepening crisis. Whisper it quietly, but the eurozone may be about to plunge headlong into another crisis as the political situation in its third-largest economy, Italy, deteriorates rapidly. Almost three months after an inconclusive election left the country without a government, Italians could be headed back to the polls imminently. Italy's political situation is notoriously complicated, so Business Insider has tried to break down exactly what's going on and why it's all happening now. A nation in crisis The growing crisis can trace its roots all the way back to 2009, with the foundation of the 5-Star Movement, which in less than a decade has grown to be the largest party in Italian politics, winning 222 out of 630 seats in Italy's lower house of government, the Chamber of Deputies, at March's election. The party's policies don't fit neatly into the traditional left-right political spectrum, something it is keen to emphasize. It is variously antiestablishment, eurosceptic, anti-immigration, and pro-green. Its name refers to its five flagship issues: publicly owned water, sustainable (eco-friendly) transport, sustainable development, right to internet access, and environmentalism. 5-Star's popularity has led it to moderate its stance on certain issues and install a new leader, the 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, who replaced 5-Star's founder, the comedian Beppe Grillo, in October. Luigi Di Maio of the 5-Star Movement at a news conference in Rome. Thomson Reuters Such political shape-shifting has allowed 5-Star to quickly grow into its position as Italy's largest and most powerful party. But while it emerged from March's election as the biggest party, 5-Star fell well short of being able to form a government on its own. This posed problems. For several years the party said it would not be willing to enter into a coalition government or power-sharing agreement with any other party. That is because much of 5-Star's appeal has been based on its rejection of the country's establishment parties, which it believed to be corrupt. After the party gained a plurality in March, however, the party leader Di Maio relented, sensing the opportunity to govern the country. Over six weeks of talks with various parties followed, until eventually late last week it looked as though a government would be formed by 5-Star in coalition with the Lega Nord, a right-wing party led by Matteo Salvini. The League, as the party is often known, previously had ties to Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, but it moved toward 5-Star when an opportunity to govern presented itself. The League and 5-Star's alliance is an uneasy one, but the parties managed to put together a program of government that removed some of the more extreme policies from both sides — like plans to leave the euro — and just about pleased President Sergio Mattarella (who must approve any program of government) enough to govern. Late last week it seemed as though the alliance would be governing Italy with the law professor Giuseppe Conte, a political novice, as prime minister. Mattarella had reluctantly agreed to allow Conte to form a government, and it looked as if months of deadlock were finally coming to a close. That was until Mattarella began the process for approving the coalition's appointments to key offices within government. Under Italian law, the president can reject the appointment of an elected official. Trouble with the finance minister Italian President Sergio Mattarella. Thomson Reuters All was going well until Mattarella got to the two parties' nomination for finance minister. The coalition had put forward Paolo Savona, a highly eurosceptic economist and former banker who was minister of trade and industry in the 1990s. Savona has frequently advocated that Italy leave the euro, describing the single currency in a recent book as a "German cage." He has been highly critical of Germany in particular, saying in the book that "Germany didn't change its idea on its role in Europe after the end of Nazism, even if it abandoned the idea of imposing itself militarily." He also claims that Italy's decision to join the euro back in the 1990s has "halved Italians' purchasing power." Such assertions were enough for Mattarella, a europhile, to reject Savona's appointment as head of Italy's economic and fiscal policies. Mattarella told reporters it was important for confidence in broader financial markets that Italy signal an intention to remain part of the euro. "Membership of the euro is a fundamental choice for the future of our country and our young people," he said. Mattarella's rejection of Savona as finance minister was viewed as a rejection of the mandate of 5-Star and the League to govern. This caused outrage from the two parties, with Di Maio calling for Mattarella's impeachment. Salvini, the League's head, stopped short of such calls but did criticize Mattarella's decision. The rejection of the coalition left Mattarella with two choices: call another election or attempt to appoint his own technocratic government. Mattarella sprung for the second option, on Monday appointing a former International Monetary Fund official, Carlo Cottarelli, as interim prime minister with a task to try to form a new government and bring order to political and constitutional turmoil. Cottarelli is likely to struggle to form a government, as he will need to have the support of at least half of the country's 630 deputies to rule with any sort of efficacy. Given that the League and 5-Star account for 347 of those deputies and surely will not approve a Cottarelli government, it seems impossible that Italy will have a government anytime soon. With no foreseeable path to a working government, it looks as if the only option for Italy will be to hold another election, with the most likely outcome of that election being a strengthening of support for 5-Star and the League. Indeed, a poll released on Monday evening showed the League increasing its vote share by almost 5 percentage points from the election. The Dutch bank ING summed up the situation, with the economist Paolo Pizzoli writing to clients (emphasis ours): "Should he [Cottarelli] manage to obtain the parliament confidence, he would try to have the 2019 budget approved, and resign before the end of 2018, taking the country to new elections in 1Q19. Instead, should he fail to get the parliamentary confidence, he would resign and remain in office as a caretaker for ordinary business, taking the country to new elections after August. We believe the chances of the government passing the confidence vote are extremely slim, and hold an autumn vote (in September or October) as our new base case. "It is still too early to understand where the party leaders will position themselves in view of the upcoming election. Chances are that the perceived institutional wound might induce both the Northern League and the 5SM to radicalize their electoral message, but different political possibilities remain possible." "His chances of succeeding are slim and elections are likely in September," Kit Juckes, a strategist at Societe Generale, wrote on Tuesday morning. "Which leaves us 3-4 months of uncertainty ahead of a vote that may be seen as a referendum on Euro-membership." Markets are spooked Any such vote could be disastrous given that Italy is one of the three most crucial members of the eurozone project, alongside France and Germany. Such an outcome seems to be something that senior figures in the eurozone are taking seriously. According to Yanis Varoufakis, who was Greece's finance minister during the height of the country's latest debt crisis, plans are being made for Italy's exit from the euro, which is being variously known as "Italexit" and "Quitaly." "I have it on good authority that the German finance ministry, the European Central Bank and every major bank and corporation have plans in place for the possible exit from the eurozone of Italy, even of Germany," Varoufakis wrote in an editorial for the Guardian newspaper. Perhaps the simplest way to imagine the eurozone is as a three-legged stool. Germany, France, and Italy are the legs holding up the rest of the project. Remove any one of those three pillars and the stool falls over. Simply put, if Italy goes, it is likely to be curtains for the euro area. This prospect has markets freaking out on Tuesday, with assets selling off sharply across a broad spectrum. Here's the full wrap from Business Insider's Australian markets team: Yields on Italy's two-year debt rose by almost 50 basis points overnight — the biggest one-day move since 2012, at the height of the eurozone crisis. When European markets opened a short time ago, Italian two-year bond yields continued to rocket higher, climbing by another 70 basis points. They are now sitting at their highest level since 2013. Demand for safe-haven German bonds is increasing, with the yield on both two-year and 10-year German debt falling to its lowest level this year. Reflecting capital flows between Europe's periphery and core, the spread between German and Italian 10-year bond yields has soared to 261 basis points, the highest level in four years. The euro has also come under pressure, dropping below 1.16 against the US dollar for the first time in 2018. Italy's banking index is also getting hosed, down 3.4% at a 13-month low. Markets do tend to be highly sensitive to euro-exit-related developments, so some of Tuesday's moves may be a knee-jerk reaction, but it certainly feels as if a crisis is brewing both politically and economically. Analysts at the Australian investment bank Macquarie, however, urged calm for the time being. "While we see near term market pressure, we do not think that events today are sufficient to derail the economic recovery (activity has been desensitised to political shocks in the past decade), suggesting that markets will soon present a buying opportunity," a team led by Ric Deverell wrote. Deverell and co. were clear, however, that things could escalate. "A victory for the populist parties in a new election, while far from assured, could trigger a substantial risk-off event," they wrote.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
El PSG no está dispuesto a dejar ir fácilmente a Marco Verratti, uno de los principales objetivos del FC Barcelona para reforzarse de cara a la temporada 2017/18. De ahí que, además de decir al Barça que el centrocampista no está en venta, esté intentando contentar al jugador. Una de las vías sería intentar negociar una mejora de contrato, a pesar de que Marco se puso en contacto con los responsables deportivos del PSG para comunicar su deseo de jugar en el Barça. Otra manera de conseguir que Verratti se replantee su decisión sería rodearlo en el vestuario del Parque de los Príncipes de jugadores con lso que se sienta arropado. En este sentido, y según el diario francés 'LÉquipe', el PSG estaría dispuesto fichar a Andrea Belotti, el delantero del Torino por el que también se han interesado el Milan y el Manchester United. Belotti llegó a Torino procedente del Palermo en la temporada 2015/16 a cambio de 8,4 millones de euros y en la última temporada ha marcado 28 goles y ha repartido 8 asistencias entre la Serie A Liga y la Coppa Italia.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Black Slobbering Fetish This Dusky Dominatrix is aware of learn how to downright abase her pitiful subR30;kid is were given him trussed down and vulnerable, and kid commences drooling into his hatch, forcing him to not splash a spurt. It resumes as kid refreshes herself with sugary-sweet grapes…chewing every one and drooling the skins into his hatch. Witnessing how this in poor health is masturbation on it the dominatrix determines he must be installed take a look at with some severe cock and ball torture penalty, and a few time at the St. Andrews Move!	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
So, it’s an exciting time for UX designers. But it’s completely unexplored territory and this puts UX designers in a slightly uncomfortable position. They cannot fully rely on existing standards and there isn’t a wealth of research to fall back on. User behaviour with emerging tech isn’t defined. In some cases, the audience isn’t even known yet. The tech is still in its infancy, so user needs and habits are still developing. Plus, some devices such as the IoT, are waiting on industry-wide standards. This leaves UX with very basic foundations to build upon. But it’s going to have such a huge impact on user lives, that UX needs to work with what it’s got so far. How can it go about this? A potential answer was explored at a recent #ProductTalks by Akil Benjamin, Head of Research at Comuzi.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A frisky woman was mauled to death by a lion as she had sex with her boyfriend in the African bush. Sharai Mawera was enjoying a passionate moment with her lover when the Big Cat struck. Sharai’s partner, who has not been identified, ran off naked in a bid to raise the alarm. LION KILLS HANDLER IN CALIFORNIA ANIMAL SANCTUARY But local reports say tragic market worker Sharai was killed at the scene in Kariba, northern Zimbabwe. A friend told My Zimbabwe: “Unfortunately the woman was mauled to death by the lion, but her boyfriend managed to escape naked.” To read more, go to The Sun.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Adrienne Kitcheyan, a former Perryville inmate, testifies in front of the House Committee on Military, Veterans, and Regulatory Affairs. Can female inmates really be trusted with unlimited tampons? That was one of the main objections raised by the nine members of the House Committee on Military, Veterans, and Regulatory Affairs — all of whom are men — against House Bill 2222. The bill, introduced by Representative Athena Salman, a Democrat from Tempe, would require the state's Department of Corrections to provide unlimited menstrual products to women incarcerated in Arizona prisons. Currently, those women receive only 12 pads a month. If they need more, they have to ask a guard for permission. They also have to use their commissary accounts to pay for the additional products, unless they've been declared indigent. With prisoners making as little as 15 cents an hour, women are placed in a difficult situation: Do they pay for a phone call home, or for a box of tampons? "Bartering and begging for pads was a regular occurrence," testified Adrienne Kitcheyan, who was formerly incarcerated at the Perryville women's prison. "You’ve got to really think if you want to sink your whole month’s income into pads — if, hopefully, they approve it." If a woman got her period and bled on her uniform, she added, she potentially faced punishment on top of the humiliation. Depending on whether it was treated as a minor or major violation, she could lose access to phone calls, visitation rights, or the ability to purchase things from the store. (Yes, including more pads.) Another former Perryville inmate, Tuesday Brauer, said that she'd received tickets for "contraband" because she tried to refashion pads into tampons in order to be more comfortable at her yard crew job. Despite the testimony, many of the men on the committee remained skeptical about the bill's necessity. Some suggested that the problem could be solved if the Department of Corrections simply invested in better-quality pads; others warned that female inmates might request hundreds of pads and then stuff them down a toilet. The lawmakers even questioned their own power over the Department of Corrections, wondering at one point if the extra tampons and pads that would be funded by an $80,000 appropriation would actually get to the women who need them. "Is this really an issue?" Representative Jay Lawrence, a Republican from Scottsdale, asked at one point. Surprisingly — and perhaps because they realized how it would look if a group of men chose to deny women tampons — the committee ultimately voted 5-4 to move the bill forward. One Republican, Representative Noel Campbell of Prescott, joined Democrats in voting in favor of the legislation — even as he dismissed it as "another feel-good bill" that, in his opinion, would do nothing to rectify the problem. But Lawrence, in voting no, said that he was almost sorry that he'd given the bill a hearing. "I didn’t expect to hear about pads and tampons and the problems of periods," he said.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
My Kitchen Santa definitely shopped just for me. In my profile I mentioned my love for cooking [and drinking!] and all things spicy; I was rewarded with a ghost pepper sea salt [I LOVE GOURMET/FINISHING SALTS SO MUCH] and a spice rub made with datil peppers. Both of these are made locally to my K.S., so it's unlikely that I would have ever had the chance to find them around town. So awesome! Also included - another local souvenir from my K.S.! A shiny shot glass from Epcot in the most gorgeous shade of blue. I do love me some liquor! I think I'm going to put on my brave face and do some tequila shots this weekend with it and the ghost pepper salt. Wish me luck! Ghost peppers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhut_Jolokia Datils: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datil_pepper	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
সংবাদ প্রতিদিন ডিজিটাল ডেস্ক: বৃহস্পতিবারই ক্লাবের শতবর্ষ পূর্তির অনুষ্ঠান। সেজে উঠেছে ইস্টবেঙ্গল। প্রতিষ্ঠা দিবসের উৎসব ঘিরে লাল-হলুদ সমর্থকদের উত্তেজনাও তুঙ্গে। আবেগতাড়িত ভক্তরা ঐতিহাসিক দিনের সাক্ষী থাকার প্রহর গুনছেন। আর এমন আনন্দময় পরিবেশকে রীতিমতো বিষাক্ত করে তুলল একটি টুইট। ‘পশ্চিমবঙ্গে বসে ইস্টবেঙ্গলকে সমর্থন করছেন কেন?’ মেঘালয়ের রাজ্যপাল তথাগত রায়ের এই টুইট ঘিরেই বিতর্কের ঝড় উঠেছে কলকাতা ময়দানে। মঙ্গলবার টুইটারে তথাগত রায় লেখেন, “ইস্টবেঙ্গল ক্লাব শতবর্ষের উৎসবে মেতে উঠেছে। কিন্তু এই ক্লাবের কর্তা বা কোনও সমর্থকদের মাথায় কি কখনও এসেছে, যে তারা পশ্চিমবঙ্গে বসে ইস্টবেঙ্গলকে কেন সমর্থন করছে?’ স্বাভাবিকভাবেই এমন টুইটে ক্ষুব্ধ লাল-হলুদ সমর্থকরা। একটি ক্লাবের নাম ইস্টবেঙ্গল বলেই যে এ রাজ্যে বসে তাকে সমর্থন করা যাবে না, এমন কথার কোনও যুক্তি খুঁজে পাচ্ছেন না কেউই। অনেকেই প্রশ্ন তুলেছেন, দেশভাগের এত বছর পরেও কেন এখন এমন মন্তব্য করে বিতর্ক তৈরি করছেন তথাগত রায়। এমন মন্তব্যের জন্য তাঁর ক্ষমা চাওয়া উচিত বলেও সরব সদস্য-সমর্থকরা। গোটা বিষয়টিতে বেশ বিরক্ত ইস্টবেঙ্গলের সহ-সচিব শান্তিরঞ্জন দাশগুপ্ত। বলেন, “একটা ক্লাবের নামের সঙ্গে অন্যকিছু গুলিয়ে ফেলাটা ভুল হবে। রাজনীতিবিদরা সব বিষয়েই রাজনীতির রং লাগাতে চান। যেটা মেনে নেওয়া যায় না। ওঁদের মনে রাখতে হবে, আমরা ভোট দিয়ে ওঁদের জনপ্রতিনিধি করি। তাই মানুষের আবেগে আঘাত লাগে, এমন কিছু বলা ওঁদের উচিত নয়। এই ক্লাবের সাফল্য মানে রাজ্য তথা দেশের মুখ উজ্জ্বল হওয়া। স্পোর্টিং স্পিরিট না থাকলেই মানুষ এভাবে ভাবতে পারে। এসব যুক্তিহীন, মূর্খের মতো আলোচনা বাদ দিয়ে আমাদের উচিত ফুটবলের উন্নতি নিয়ে কথা বলা।” মোহনবাগান কোষাধ্যক্ষ দেবাশিস দত্তের গলাতেও একই সুর। তাঁর কথায়, “ইস্টবেঙ্গলের নামকরণ ১৯২০ সালে হয়েছিল। তারপর আর নামবদল হয়নি। কিন্তু তার সঙ্গে অন্য কিছুর তুলনা না টানাই ভাল। তাহলে তো প্রশ্ন উঠতে পারে, এ দেশে কেন পশ্চিমবঙ্গ রয়েছে? একটাই তো বঙ্গ এখানে। তাই এসব প্রশ্ন ভ্রান্ত।” তথাগত রায়ের মন্তব্য ঘিরে পরিস্থিতি এতটাই উত্তপ্ত হয়ে ওঠে যে ড্যামেজ কন্ট্রোল করতে ফের টুইট করেন তিনি। বাংলায় লেখেন, “ভাষার সমস্যা হতেই পারে-বিদেশি ভাষা তো! যদি আমি পাঁচ মিনিটের জন্য ঠান্ডা মাথায় ভাবি, ওয়েস্ট বেঙ্গলে থেকে কেন আমি ইস্টবেঙ্গল সমর্থক, তাহলেই সত্যটা বেরিয়ে আসবে। আমার বাড়ি ছিল পূর্ব বাংলায়, সেখানে আমার যাবার অধিকার নেই। আমার বক্তব্য, এই কথাটা যেন আমরা বাঙালরা কখনও ভুলে না যাই।” উদ্বাস্তুদের ক্ষোভের কথাই তুলে ধরার চেষ্টা করেছেন তিনি। যদিও এতেও সমর্থকদের ক্ষোভ প্রশমিত হয়নি। Abuses pouring in,basically due to lack of understanding. Many of us have forgotten our East Bengali roots,but support the club of that name. The fact that I support East Bengal while sitting in West Bengal shd constantly remind me that we were driven out because of our religion	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, "Good Morning America" presents "On Their Shoulders," a series featuring newsmakers, actors and musical artists who share tributes to those who paved the way for them. Actress Peyton Elizabeth Lee is not your average 14-year-old. She has traveled to China with her family, garnered more than 1 million followers on Instagram and has become the star of the hit Disney Channel show "Andi Mack." (MORE: 'On Their Shoulders': Juju Chang talks pursuing the American Dream and why representation matters) "Andi Mack" has gained attention for bringing different stories of inclusion to life. Peyton's character Andi is a 13-year-old girl who is just trying to figure out all of the ways she can live her life to the fullest. Another essential part of Andi is that she is half-Asian, like Peyton. Although the "Andi Mack" creators announced that the show will air its final episodes beginning June 21, Peyton said it was "exciting to bring representation to such a popular character on Disney Channel." "I think it's important that kids around the world feel confident in who they are, and feel proud of who they are and feel empowered by people they see in the media," she shared. (MORE: Marvel is making a movie with its first Asian lead and it's going to be epic) PHOTO: Peyton Elizabeth Lee appears on an episode of 'Andi Mack.' (Fred Hayes/Disney Channel via Getty Images) More "So hopefully by showing a character that maybe looks different or feels different makes everyone just feel empowered to be proud of who they are," she said. Lee said she is "grateful" for leaders of Asian heritage who have come before her, such as her father, actor Andrew Tinpo Lee, Sandra Oh, Vera Wang and more. The 14-year-old continues to make moves in the industry, and recently announced her newest project, her leading role in the original movie "Secret Society of Second Born Royals" for Disney's streaming service, Disney+. Peyton shared that she is excited to see what the audience thinks of this "contemporary princess story." Exploring her Chinese heritage One of the people Lee honored for paving the way for her own career was her father, who has played roles in "Grey's Anatomy," "Kidding" and more. He is Chinese and moved from St. Lucia to the United States when he was just 1. PHOTO: Peyton with her father, actor Andrew Tinpo Lee. (Andrew Tinpo Lee ) More "As an actor himself, he always taught me to never give up on my dreams," Peyton shared. (MORE: 5 celebrities explain why Asian representation is important) The two have a strong father-daughter relationship. They even traveled with family to China to learn more about their ancestry, which Peyton said was one of the' "favorite memories of my life." "There's always been kind of a blurry spot in who I am," Peyton shared. "I know my mom's family really well, but my dad's Asian heritage is something that I've never really been able to tap into." Some of her favorite memories from the trip include trying food like "stinky tofu" and scorpions, and visiting the Great Wall. Lee said the trip was an amazing way to "learn more about who I am." "A new era of representation" Lee also said she is "grateful" for women like Lauren Tom, who is her co-star on "Andi Mack," but is also known for her role in the first major movie led by an all-Asian cast, "The Joy Luck Club." She and the rest of the cast "paved the way for other pop culture milestones like 'Crazy Rich Asians,'" Peyton said. (MORE: Before 'Crazy Rich Asians,' there was 'The Joy Luck Club': Cast, executive producer on the film, an all-Asian cast, 25 years later) PHOTO: Gemma Chan attends the 91st Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 24, 2019 in Hollywood, Calif. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic) More Story continues	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A federal judge in Tucson could break new ground this week in deciding whether the U.S. Forest Service can legally say "no" to the proposed Rosemont Mine.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Suki is a bluepoint siamese cat who was rescued in Southern CA. Her nickname is "The Suk" pronounced, "The Sook". She is very photogenic and media savvy.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
17/09/2016 - 23h24 Por Luiz Carlos Azenha A Forbes é uma revista de negócios que poderia ser considerada conservadora nos Estados Unidos. Porém, não se deve confundir “conservador” com o jornalismo praticado pela grande mídia do Brasil: aqui estamos falando em manipulações diárias, para não mencionar as descaradas omissões. Isso abre um enorme fosso entre a visão majoritária das redações brasileiras e os correspondentes internacionais — na interpretação dos mesmíssimos fatos. Não é por acaso que um número crescente de brasileiros está buscando suas informações no El País, na BBC, no Intercept e… na Forbes. Uma das colaboradoras da revista no Rio, Shannon Sims — que, é preciso frisar, não fala em nome da publicação — fez um resumo bem humorado do episódio do powerpoint utilizado pelo MPF para denunciar Lula. Não, não se trata de um texto pró-Lula, nem pró-PT. Shannon parece ter se espantado com a subjetividade de algumas acusações a Lula e concluiu suas observações com uma frase que foi direto ao ponto: “O problema é que se ele [Lula] é corrupto, os fatos precisam ser provados através de um processo legal limpo. O fato de que a denúncia mais importante do Brasil no momento é apresentada através de slides risíveis do Powerpoint não oferece a credibilidade de que o processo necessita. Mas com certeza gera alguns excelentes memes”. Shannon não menciona o fato de que o “espetáculo” contra Lula e o PT aconteceu faltando duas semanas para as eleições municipais e num momento em que o PT é um importante componente das manifestações Fora Temer. Se a repórter da Forbes tivesse vivido vários ciclos eleitorais no Brasil, teria se dado conta: é sempre assim em véspera de eleições e não é por acaso que as denúncias, replicadas maciçamente pela velha mídia conservadora, apontam sempre à esquerda. Na Lava Jato, da parte do juiz Sérgio Moro, é só ler o manual de guerrilha que ele mesmo escreveu, baseado na Operação Mãos Limpas, da Itália: para Moro, é essencial condenar os acusados ao menos no tribunal da opinião pública, para alijá-los do poder. Foi isso o que os procuradores do MPF fizeram, não? Condenaram Lula como “comandante máximo” da “propinocracia” na TV mas só vão apresentar as provas, se dispuserem delas, ao longo dos próximos meses, DEPOIS das eleições. Antes das eleições, geraram o “meme master” do Jornal Nacional, que deu um tapa no powerpoint do MPF, e manchetes que inundaram as 15 mil bancas de jornais do Brasil, com repercussão garantida até que o juiz Moro aceite a denúncia, ou seja, avançando vários dias em paralelo à campanha eleitoral. Notem que “comandante máximo”, “propinocracia”, “esquema criminoso” e “organização criminosa” aparecem de forma destacada nas manchetes, sempre associados ao nome de Lula, frases de marketing perfeitas para grudar no cérebro do eleitor. Ainda que não tenha entrado neste campo, a repórter da Forbes teve seu perfil inundado por elogios por causa do texto que escreveu. Uma das leitoras agradeceu à jornalista “por demonstrar quanto é risível o golpe Made in Brazil“. Ficamos imaginando o espanto que os correspondentes estrangeiros sentem ao constatar o estado de carência de uma parcela considerável de brasileiros, sedentos por informações equilibradas e críticas pertinentes, independentemente do alvo. sugerido pela leitora Márcia Michelin Laboissière, no Facebook Leia também: Depois do golpe e da denúncia contra Lula, a tentativa de enterrar a Lava Jato	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
What's that? You can't get enough of Intel? Well, it's your lucky day, because we just got our hands on the chip maker's roadmap for 2011 and 2012. According to the leaked slides, we can expect to see the Sandy Bridge E-series in Q4 of 2011. Alternately, the 22nm Ivy Bridge is slated for a somewhat less specific release in the first half of 2012. We're also likely to see the new Pentium and Celeron-based Sandy Bridge models in Q3 this year, and the Atom-equipped Cedarview in Q4. The roadmap's also giving us a rather vague look at pricing for the chipsets, and from what we gather, we can expect the E-series to sport a hefty price tag and Cedarview to bring the value. If that's not enough to sate that animal appetite for Intel news, you can hit the source link for more roadmap goodness.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Kellogg’s says that a criminal investigation has been launched after a worker was caught on camera apparently urinating onto cereal before it was packed into boxes for sale. The unidentified man is seen apparently befouling the cereal in a 43-second video which was posted online to the World Star Hip Hop website on Friday. The company said it is "outraged by this completely unacceptable situation" as it confirmed the incident was recorded at its Memphis, Tennessee factory in 2014. A criminal investigation is underway as well as a thorough internal investigation. Kellogg’s spokesman Rice Krispies Treats, granola clusters used in several products, and "a few" other puffed rice treats products which have since been discontinued "could have been potentially affected", the company said. A conveyor belt at a Kellogg factory (file photo) Credit: PA The video shows a man urinating onto the conveyor belt, as loose cereal is unloaded from a tube onto the production line. The video zooms in on a Kellogg's logo on equipment in the factory. The online channel WREG-TV reported that the footage was shot during a contentious labour dispute. Kellogg's spokesman Kris Charles said the US Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigation is leading the probe into the video, which was recorded in 2014. Kellogg takes this situation very seriously and we were shocked and deeply disappointed by this video that we just learned of yesterday. We immediately alerted law enforcement authorities and regulators. A criminal investigation is underway as well as a thorough internal investigation. Kris Charles, Kellogg's spokesman Last year a farm worker in Lincolnshire was sacked after being caught on film urinating in a field of vegetables headed for Tesco.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
It is without a doubt that women can benefit from cannabis consumption in many ways. It is also undeniable that there are many things that women endure during their lives in which marijuana can play a large factor in providing relief from such as menstrual cycles, PMS, cramps and the many other great things that come along with being a female. Many women have even chosen to medicate with cannabis to treat morning sickness during pregnancy. There is one time in every woman’s life though that cannabis can be very beneficial and that is during menopause. It’s More Than Just Physical Changes and Side Effects During this time, many things change, and many side effects are experienced. Many people believe that these changes and side effects are only physical. However, there are a lot of mental and psychological aspects that are also involved with menopause. To truly be able to understand how cannabis can help a woman during menopause you must first understand what menopause is. Not only must you know what it is you must know the key things that change within the woman’s anatomy during this time as well as the side effects that occur. What Menopause Is Menopause can best be defined as the time in a woman’s life in which her reproductive cycle changes and she is no longer able to reproduce. This is a result of a reduction in estrogen and progesterone produced by the ovaries. During menopause is when a woman’s menstrual cycles also come to an end. Essentially it is the end of a woman’s fertility. Menopause typically occurs in a woman between the ages of 40 and 61. Menopause is not something that happens overnight. In fact, it can last for several years, and there are a few different stages of menopause. The average age in which women will have her last menstrual cycle is 51 years old. Causes of Early Onset of Menopause and Common Side Effects This is when menopause naturally occurs, but there are other factors that may cause it to happen sooner. Some of these factors include surgically induced menopause (bilateral oophorectomy or hysterectomy), chemotherapy treatment, genetics, autoimmune diseases and genetics.No matter how menopause comes about it will bring upon side effects that are not experienced when a woman is having her menstrual cycle on a regular basis. Side effects of menopause include night sweats, hot flashes, lack of sex drive, discomfort during sex, and much more. All the way from the anxiety and depression to insomnia and hot flashes that occur during menopause, cannabis can help So now that we have a general idea of what menopause is let’s look at how marijuana can help during this inevitable time in a woman’s life. Mood swings– Let’s face it, weed makes people happy! It only makes sense that it would be a great medication for women suffering from mood swings or irritability during menopause. Weight gain– Science has proven that cannabis consumer maintains a lower average BMI (Body Mass Index) in comparison to those who do not consume cannabis on a regular basis. There is also a brand of cannabis launching soon in major markets that are specially formulated NOT to give you the munchies like most strains on the market today. This brand will be known as Skinny Girl Weed, and it will be brought to you by Bethenny Frankel who is also who we have to thank for Skinny Girl Cocktails! Night Sweats and Hot Flashes– Studies have shown that marijuana consumption will naturally boost the serotonin levels within the human body, and it will also cause the endocannabinoid to work more efficiently. Both of these factors can help in the reduction of hot flashes and their severity. These factors can also help to reduce anxiety that is commonly experienced during this time. Some individuals believe that cannabis consumption also lowers the body temperature, but there have been no significant studies conducted thus far. Decreased Sex Drive– Many cannabis consumers claim that marijuana increases their sex drives. There are even specific cannabis products that can be purchased that are formulated to increase the libido in women. These cannabis strains have the perfect brand name, Sexxpot! Discomfort during sex– Aside from cannabis flowers for smoking or oils for vaping there are many other cannabis products on the market today including cannabis-based sexual lubricants that can help relieve the primary cause of discomfort during sex, dryness. One of those products is a personal lubricant formulated to increase female excitement named Foria. Research and What We Know Thus Far While there is not a lot of research surrounding cannabis and menopause due to the prohibition of marijuana around the world, based on what we do know, the endocannabinoid system plays a huge part in menopause and the side effects that occur. Estrogen levels are directly related to the endocannabinoid levels in a woman’s body. Ironically both endocannabinoid and estrogen levels peak during ovulation. When ovulation does not occur (such as during menopause), side effects such as ones listed above can occur. Estrogen is also responsible for regulating FAAH (Fatty Acid Amind Hydrolase) which is the enzyme that correlates with the endocannabinoid Anandamide and helps to control endocannabinoid levels within the body. A Healthy Endocannabinoid System is Key Based on the research that we do have, we know that Anandamide plays a large role in egg maturity and the release that happens during a menstrual cycle. This means that a deficient endocannabinoid system could cause early onset of menopause. Anxiety and depression are very common in women who are going through menopause. Again ironically the endocannabinoid system comes into play. The regulation of emotional response, as well as relief from depression and anxiety, occurs when estrogen signals the endocannabinoid system to function optimally. During menopause estrogen levels are lowered naturally within the body which leads to a less stimulated endocannabinoid system that results in a weakened ability to elevate mood or to respond to stress triggers. Consuming cannabis helps to keep the endocannabinoid system functioning at an optimal level. So to me, it is only sensible to think that you should nurture this system even more during menopause. Choosing cannabis during menopause has helped thousands of women for hundreds of years, and chances are it can also help you!	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
At an MMA event in London, welterweight Mike Garret caught Sam Heron with a lightning-quick kick to the face that ended his night just a second into the bout. As Cagepotato points out, though, the clock in the video is slightly misleading. Although Garret hits Heron with a kick in one second, the fight isn’t officially waved off immediately. It takes the referee a few additional seconds to make that call. Whether or not Garret’s KO is a world record remains to be verified, but his victory dance is one of the all-time best. (Thanks to SB Nation for bringing this to our attention.)	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
New Bill Designed To Stop Bogus Copyright Claims From Stopping You From Selling What You Own from the you-own-devices-act dept ...if a computer program enables any part of a machine or other product to operate, the owner of the machine or other product is entitled to transfer an authorized copy of the computer program, or the right to obtain such copy, when the owner sells, leases, or otherwise transfers the machine or other product to another person. The right to transfer provided under this subsection may not be waived by any agreement. Any right to receive modifications to the computer program... relating in whole or in part to security or error correction that applied to the owner of the machine or other product... shall apply to the person to whom the machine or product and the copy of the computer program are transferred. Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis. While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you. –The Techdirt Team We just wrote about an audio equipment manufacturer trying to argue that it wasfor someone to resell their products. While this was obviously crazy, never underestimate the lengths that some companies will go through these days to try to block people from selling products they (thought they had) legally bought. And guess what tool they're using to block you from actually owning the products you bought? Why copyright, of course. It's yet another example of how copyright is often used to block property rights rather than to create them.This has become especially popular among telco/networking equipment manufacturers. These companies ship hardware with software included -- and then argue that you can't actually do anything with that hardware -- such as fix it or sell it -- without their approval, because doing so would violate their copyright on the software. Earlier this year, there was a big lawsuit in which Avaya had sued a company for copyright infringement for merely servicing Avaya equipment. Many other equipment manufacturers have terms of service or "transfer" policies that either effectively block such sales, or (more commonly) include a bunch of hoops that everyone has to jump through just to sell the products you thought you owned. All because of the software that comes with the hardware. While this has mostly been focused on big enterprise systems, it's not much of a stretch to think about how it might eventually apply elsewhere. With so many products being computerized these days, there will be software in lots of different hardware products -- and imagine the havoc those companies could create if they tried to block the sale of these products based on copyright.Of course, as we've discussed for years, in copyright there's the right of first sale , which isto let you sell your individual copy of a copyrighted work (it's why you can resell a copy of a book you own, for example). But many companies have been trying to chip away at that right, and at least some in Congress want to stop this practice. Rep. Blake Farenthold -- who I only just found out is an EFF member ! -- has now introduced a new bill called the You Own Devices Act, or YODA. While I tend to hate silly names for bills, this simple bill is an important reminder that when you buy a product, even if it has copyrighted software included in it, you should own it. The key part of the bill:Realistically, this is just reinforcing the first sale doctrine, and it's ridiculous that it needs to be reinforced, but hopefully it can block out some of the questionable shenanigans by some companies.The bill further makes sure that even if someone sells or transfers such equipment, that the new owners are still allowed to receive updates and security patches:While it's ridiculous enough that this bill is even needed, it's nice to see at least somecopyright reforms popping up. Filed Under: blake farenthold, copyright, equipment, first sale, ownership, property, property rights, resale, resellers, yoda, you own devices	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
By Express News Service BENGALURU: Multi-crore fake stamp paper racket mastermind Abdul Karim Telgi is in critical condition. 57-year-old Telgi, who is convicted in fake stamp paper cases and serving life imprisonment at Central Prison in Bengaluru, is being treated at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Victoria Hospital in the city. “He is in critical condition,” Dr Balaji Pai, Medical Superintendent, Emergency and Trauma Care, Victoria Hospital told The New Indian Express on Monday night. Pai refused to give any further details. Sources said Telgi was admitted to the hospital a week back after his health deteriorated. He is suffering from brain fever and has been in the ICU from last one week, sources added. Five cases were booked against Telgi in Bengaluru. He was convicted in four and acquitted in one case. Telgi who is in prison from last 16 years is also wanted by police in Goa, Maharashtra, AP and other states in fake stamp paper cases booked in those states. Telgi, a native of Khanapur in Belgaum district, was the kingpin behind the racket that produced fake stamp papers and allegedly sold them to number of private and government agencies, including banks and insurance firms. He entered the world of crime by counterfeiting passports and later took to manufacturing fake stamp papers. The multi-crore racket had spread across the country. The racket was uncovered first in 1999 when the city police raided a premises in Vasanth Nagar in Bengaluru and seized huge quantity of fake stamp papers and other documents. Telgi was later nabbed from Maharashtra by the city police team when HT Sangliana was the commissioner of city police. The then government formed Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a senior officer. The SIT questioned many police officers and politicians who allegedly helped Telgi in the racket. Karnataka government subsequently banned stamp papers and went in for franking machines. Even inside the jail, Telgi is accused of bribing the officials to get extra facilities. In July this year, then Prisons Department DIG D Roopa, in her report about the alleged irregularities in the prisons department had mentioned that Telgi and AIADMK leader Sasikala were given special facilities and treated like VVIPs. The charge was, however, denied by the jail officials.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Every week, Washington Wire provides a rundown of the top online political ads, based on data from Visible Measures. Two high-voltage attack ads faced off in the most recent week, with the Obama campaign’s aggressively negative “Firms” spot taking the top ranking with over 1.4 million views, besting “These Hands” from the Romney campaign. The rankings are based on data from Visible Measures for the week ended Sunday. The Obama spot uses footage of Mitt Romney singing “God Bless America” while running through footage of various places, including the Cayman Islands and Switzerland. As the Journal’s Peter Nicholas wrote a week ago, the ad suggests Mr. Romney is a hypocrite for proclaiming his love of country while parking his money overseas.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
"Who are the Others? Who are We? What is the difference between Them and Us?" Rano Turaeva ponders this question early in the first chapter of Migration and Identity in Central Asia: The Uzbek Experience, a book concerned with the social construction and maintenance of collective difference. Turaeva considers these questions with reference to the specific circumstances of the Khorezmi, an Uzbekistani ethnic sub-group hailing from the country's northwest Khorezm Region, and their experiences as internal migrants moving to the capital city of Tashkent. The Khorezmi share a common ethnicity with those whose families have resided in Tashkent for generations, with differences between the two groups boiling down to differences in dialect and some cultural practices. Despite this, government restrictions on internal migration to Tashkent have contributed to the construction of new social divisions within the country and exacerbated the splintering of Uzbek ethnic identity. Policies first introduced during the Soviet period to control the movement of populations within the country now serve to enforce a system which privileges the urbanized Tashkentis over rural populations such as the Khorezmi. The national capital's superior opportunities for education, employment and housing are effectively out of reach for all of those without legal registration in the city. Over time, the formal administrative divisions between Tashkentis and those from outside the capital have translated into social divisions, manifest in a sense of "us" and "them," which the author argues, both sides now actively cultivate. The author, herself a Khorezmian Uzbek, details the complex series of interwoven networks that support the new Khorezmi arrivals, from the securing of local accommodation and employment to the brokering of marriage to suitable fellow Khorezmi. It is through these networks, and their associated cultural practices and rituals, that Khorezmi identity is maintained, even for those seeking a long-term future in Tashkent. The book is first and foremost an academic text, based upon the author's anthropology dissertation. As such, many of the book's details will be of interest only to those with a specific focus in Central Asia, internal migration and/or the formation of identities. The book nevertheless has much to recommend it to the more casual reader, due in no small part to the research approach taken by the author. Turaeva applies the academic technique known as "thick description" to her subject matter, whereby the reader is provided with not only the facts but also commentary, interpretation and the author's own reflections. This approach helps provide much-needed context to the book's descriptions of otherwise complex and unfamiliar Uzbek bureaucratic processes and Khorezmi cultural mores. The author also liberally peppers the book with juicy vignettes of the life of the Khorezmi, and these provide a comfortable entry point for those without a background in Central Asia. For example, this evocative description of the arduous bus journey involved for those travelling from Khorezmi to Tashkent: "Men usually have spirits with their meals. This is usually vodka, which can be detected from the lingering smell of vodka in the salon of the bus after 'dinner'. After a long period of enduring heavy cigarette smoke, the smell of vodka is added and becomes unbearable, especially when the tired feet of heavy men are freed from the sometimes incorrectly sized or uncomfortable shoes. There are still 13-14 hours left to reach Tashkent—if the bus does not break down on the way." Such descriptions make for a more accessible book than most converted from academic theses, although it can sometimes be unclear how each story or example directly relates to the author's central argument. The book is most engaging in its unpicking of the nature of social prejudice and boundary-setting in Uzbekistan. The author's interviews with her Khorezmi and Tashkenti contacts reveal long-standing stereotypes magnified by the greater cross-cultural interactions in Tashkent. Khorezmi see the Tashkenti as arrogant and corrupted by their entitled, modern lifestyle; while they in turn see the Khorezmi as naïve, uncultured country folk. Each group also maintains its own self-narrative, about what it means to be "Khorezmi" or "Tashkenti", with a complex–often contradictory–set of qualities and characteristics that mark one as "authentic". Both sides actively apply these ideas of "us" and "them" to reassert their own collective identity within their own community and in their representation to those external to the community. The author effectively expounds this assertion, drawing from both academic theory and her own case studies. Perhaps the lone weakness of the book is the absence of international comparison. Although the author cites a few examples from Africa and China, this could have been explored further. China in particular, with its hukou system of residency registration, has been the subject of substantial academic study and could have provided an interesting comparison case. In China too, official divisions between local, urban residents and unregistered "migrant workers" have led to, or at least exacerbated, the sense of social difference within China's population. Such cases have important implications for policy makers and social scientists beyond Asia. With Migration and Identity in Central Asia: The Uzbek Experience, Turaeva has produced a comprehensive account of the Khorezmi experience of internal migration. Her deep understanding of the local context, and unique access to Tashkent's Khorezmi and Uzbek communities, have allowed her to produce a book which makes an important contribution to the study of the interplay between identity formation and internal migration. Joshua Bird is a Researcher and PhD Candidate at the China Studies Centre at University of Sydney Reprinted with permission from The Asian Review of Books	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
NRL veteran Jeff Robson has been signed by the Vodafone Warriors on a one-year contract providing a further boost to the club’s depth and experience for the 2016 season. The off-contract New South Welshman boasts a total of 159 NRL appearances, the last two of which were in the Sharks’ just-ended 2015 finals campaign when they beat the South Sydney Rabbitohs before being eliminated by grand finalists the North Queensland Cowboys. After starting his NRL career with six games for Manly, Robson spent three seasons with the Parramatta Eels, the first of which culminated in his appearance in the 2009 grand final against Newcastle. He switched to Cronulla in 2012. Vodafone Warriors head coach Andrew McFadden said Robson would bring both experience and professionalism to the squad. “It’s great to have Jeff joining us. He’s not only a proven performer but he’s also a durable and totally professional athlete,” he said. “Like Roger (Tuivasa-Sheck), Issac (Luke) and Blake (Ayshford), Jeff enables us to build our depth as well as giving us another player to help to lift our standards across the squad and throughout the club.” Robson played all 26 matches for the Sharks this year and has missed only nine games in his four seasons with the club. Also able to play at hooker and standoff, he has played a total of nine finals matches in four play-off campaigns during his career. Robson will find familiar faces at the Vodafone Warriors in fellow new signing Blake Ayshford and Jonathan Wright. They were all team-mates at the Sharks while Robson and Wright were also club-mates at Parramatta in 2009-2010. JEFF ROBSON Date of Birth: August 05, 1982 Birthplace: Leeton, NSW, Australia Junior Club: Leeton Greenies Position: Halfback Height: 176cm Weight: 87kg Rep Honours: Nil NRL Debut: Manly v Cronulla, Brookvale Oval, 23/05/2004 (Round 11) NRL Career: 159 appearances, 2004-2015 Manly: 6 appearances, 2004-2008 Parramatta: 61 appearances, 2009-2011 Cronulla: 92 appearances, 2012-2015 NRL Points: 109 (27 tries, 1 field goal) VODAFONE WARRIORS \| 2016 NRL SQUAD Backs \| Matt Allwood, Blake Ayshford, David Fusitu’a, Konrad Hurrell, Shaun Johnson, Solomone Kata, Thomas Leuluai, Mason Lino, Tuimoala Lolohea, Ken Maumalo, Marata Niukore, Jeff Robson, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Manu Vatuvei, Henare Wells, Jonathan Wright Forwards \| Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Charlie Gubb, Ben Henry, Ryan Hoffman, Jacob Lillyman, Sam Lisone, Sione Lousi, Issac Luke, Simon Mannering, Ben Matulino, John Palavi, Upu Poching, Nathaniel Roache, Ligi Sao, Toafofoa Sipley, Bodene Thompson, Albert Vete @Cronulla_Sharks @NZWarriors @jeffrobson82 good luck Robbo. A gentleman and a great sport. Our club shone brighter for your time here — Brendon Walker (@BrendonWalker) September 30, 2015	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
We are in the middle of the greatest national emergency in recent history. The entire American economy has ground to a halt and there is a global pandemic threatening millions of lives. People are having to huddle in their homes, terrified, with no end in sight. And in the midst of all this, the Democratic frontrunner for president is… nowhere to be found. Politico reports that “ever since his commanding victories Tuesday [the 17th] against Bernie Sanders in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, Biden has made no public appearances or statements.” He’s not being interviewed on television. He is not recording daily video messages, and videos on his social media accounts feature people who are not Joe Biden. His recent interaction with the public has apparently been limited to a single thumbs-up emoji posted on instagram. The Los Angeles Times recently wondered what Biden could be “doing all day.” This an appalling failure of leadership. At a time when every American is looking for reassurance and a path out of this catastrophe, with a president who is so clearly incompetent, we need political leaders who seem like they know what they’re doing and have the situation in hand. Instead, Joe Biden has gone AWOL for a week. It is reported that Biden will soon begin holding news conferences “hopefully, God willing, by Monday” and he is having his house fitted with special equipment so that he can eventually begin communicating with the American people. As an explanation for why Biden has been absent, it makes no sense. We live in the age of streaming video. I could pick up my iPhone right now and start communicating with you on video. I know the Biden campaign has struggled to master the basics of this before, but this has gotten to a point of absurdity. Even assuming Biden does start talking to the public tomorrow (though they only said “as early as” Monday), he’s already shown himself totally incapable of handling a crisis. We are in a time when every single day matters as much as a month used to matter. To wander off for a week and have the papers wondering what you could even be doing is a sign that you are not up to the task of leading. If he shows up now, it is already far too late. It is not the first time this has happened. Biden has been absent throughout the campaign, and people were asking “where is Joe?” in the leadup to the last debate. Biden declined interviews with all the news networks, leading Rachel Maddow to beg him on air to appear on her show as Bernie Sanders had done, though he reportedly had a conference call with some reporters on Friday the 20th. At a campaign rally in St. Louis on the 8th of this month, he showed up to speak for only seven minutes before disappearing again. All of this fueled speculation that Biden was hiding something, possibly serious cognitive decline, especially given how often on the campaign he had made bizarre, incoherent public statements. But Biden seemed to put these rumors to rest with a strong performance in the debate with Bernie Sanders: he was lively and sharp, and misspoke no more than any other normal person would, though he did lie shamelessly about a bunch of things. Which raises the question: what is going on? Why is he dithering? Why is he allowing Trump to control the messaging at this crucial time, with no counter-narrative? Why, when a deadly virus is running rampant and throwing millions of people out of work overnight, is the Biden campaign replying “mañana, mañana”? Perhaps the feisty Joe of the debate will return as early as Monday, but why did he disappear and how can he have failed this badly? This is downright weird. There are a few possible explanations, and all of them should worry Democrats. The first is that Joe Biden is unwell, that he was able to muster his energy for the debate but is not really in very good shape day to day. I have no idea whether this is true, but if it isn’t true, the fact that the Biden campaign has fueled this speculation by hiding him away is a mark of extreme incompetence, and if it is true then obviously he can’t be the Democratic leader right now during an unprecedented national crisis. One other explanation is that Joe Biden is not speaking out because he has nothing to say. Historian Gabriel Winant rightly points out that one reason Biden’s performance is so bad is that “the response the situation actually demands would negate the whole logic of [establishment Democrats’] power and lead inexorably to its end.” That’s because Biden’s whole campaign has been spent attacking the left for demanding massive new public investment, paid leave and guaranteed income, and bold, immediate action to fight crises, plus free healthcare for all—and now we need all of the things centrist Democrats have long said we can’t have or will have to wait many years for. In a Great Depression, you need a New Deal, and we’re facing a Great Depression with a Democratic party that has rejected the foundations of New Deal social democracy. How can proud incrementalists and defenders of the status quo ever hope to fix this? Democrats have generally been quite bad lately at doing much beyond attacking Trump, and Biden might have adopted some absurd principle like “you shouldn’t criticize the president too hard in a crisis.” Politico does say that early on Biden “held his fire against the president out of concern it would look too political.” Too political! This is unbelievable. People do not understand: the reason we are facing all of this is because of Donald Trump’s criminal failure to do the basic work necessary to keep the country safe. This is a politically-made crisis: Trump dismisses experts and prefers bluster to action, so now we’re faced with the possibility of a far deadlier crisis than we would be facing with an even marginally competent president. Other countries like Russia and South Korea currently face a far less dire situation than we do, in part because their government actually took the protection of public health seriously. Even now, Trump is still refusing to use the authority he has to order the production of necessary medical supplies, and brushing off requests for him to coordinate the distribution of supplies by saying the federal government is “not a shipping clerk.” But the public does not necessarily understand themselves to have been hurt by their government, and if people just see Trump on television every day they will see an image of a man who seems to be doing his best in a moment of urgency. Trump’s approval rating for handling the disaster is 55%—even though he made it much worse than it ever had to be! Democrats need to expose the truth, to show that this is Hurricane Katrina x 1000. Perhaps, though, Joe Biden sees this as unseemly. As I have noted before, the Democratic establishment is weirdly incapable of criticizing Trump with sufficient moral force, in part because many of them are complicit in the things we need to expose about Trump (in this article about the mask shortage, a mask manufacturer says he tried to show both the Obama and Trump administration that outsourcing critical production of medical equipment overseas was a bad idea, and now we are faced with having to get the Hanes underwear plant to try to manufacture medical equipment, which is quite difficult to make.) So why? Why why why why why is Joe Biden failing so badly? Let me point out that Bernie Sanders has been conducting constant livestreaming events and raised over 2 million dollars for coronavirus relief. Go on his social media and you will see him stepping up and saying what must be done. His campaign is pivoting to coronavirus relief, and I actually think the approach to the primary they should take from now on is this: try to deliver real benefits for Americans and then ask the electorate—during the remaining primaries and at the convention—to judge him on whether they think he has handled the crisis better than his opponent. The LA Times asks “What is Biden doing?” What do we know right now about the answer to that question? An ABC News report today is discouraging. It says he does a lot of calls with important people, including “political endorsers and supporters.” On Friday’s call with reporters, Biden said: “I find myself, literally on the phone with my key advisors, medical advisors and economic advisors literally four or five hours a day, going through detailed memoranda on what we should be doing,” Four or five hours a day of work is not actually much during the greatest national emergency of our time, and it doesn’t sound from the article like Biden is doing much else. Also “going through detailed memoranda on what we should be doing” is different from “actually doing things.” (Again, lest you think it’s impossible for someone who is not the president to do anything, Sanders is organizing relief fundraising and mutual aid efforts.) The Biden campaign, meanwhile, is having endless meetings all day, coming up with many ideas for what they could do (including, according to ABC, “a yoga session with supporters”) but doing none of it. One excuse for why Biden hasn’t been doing videos is that in his Wilmington home “there aren’t particularly high ceilings, which can make lighting a challenge.” Another is that Biden is “trying to construct a digital campaign operation for a candidate so reliant on in-person interactions.” (Oh yeah, those great in-person interactions he’s famous for.) I hope I don’t need to remind you that we are in a time when every moment matters. Maybe after all these meetings he will drift in and perform well. But coronavirus has provided a real-world test of how candidates would perform under pressure, and the answer is: Biden has failed. He has shown us what kind of president he would be in an emergency, and the answer is “a weak and ineffectual one,” as we thought. Now all Democrats need to face the question: do you really want to nominate someone who lets you down this badly when you need them most?	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
First posted at 2pm today. Breaking: Gunfire broke out between Alpha Phi Beta & Upsilon fratmen in the U.P. Law -Engineering -Asian-Center areas an hour ago, according to a ranking University official who requested not to be identified as of posting time. Blog admin was able to independently confirm the shooting incident thru a member of the University security force who said the gunfire erupted on Roces Street beside the College of Engineering, which led to a chase between the two frats toward the Asian Center. The two fraternities count among their alumni several University officials.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
1usmus said: how to update the system if 3403 mod: 1) Afuefix64 3803.CAP /P /B /N /K /X /CLRCFG 2) Afugan 3803mod.rom /GAN in fact, this sequence is very important, otherwise there is no guarantee that the new BIOS will work as intended (this is my opinion, perhaps it is too biased) Difference between CLRCFG vs GAN CLRCFG - program without preserving setup configuration GAN - allows you to flash the BIOS without a capsule (digital signature) + program with preserving setup configuration Click to expand... Thank you - could you clarify this in the instructions please? Wouldn't it be best for everyone to use /X then? So I programmed 3404 onto 3404L and wiped cfg. Then I flashed 3803 which also says it clears all blocks - not sure what difference is...I guess I have to do it all over again then - just hope it works as well as it is now!Edit: So I did it - exactly the same results. I'm 99% sure the Afugan *.rom /GAN does wipe everything - it just doesn't say the names of each block like Afuefix64 does. Instead it says 'erasing All Blocks'. I also didn't see anything different when using /X with Afuefi64.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Check out our new site Makeup Addiction add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption life is flawless can't make first world problems meme	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
For those who haven’t checked: You cannot find a single Tool song on Spotify, unless you count a DJ called TooL whose single “Anti-Nuclear Bacteria” has racked up over 500,000 plays thanks to its crafty branding. You can’t sample the prog-metal superstars’ music on Apple Music either, or even download them on iTunes. Tool, who have not released an album since 2006’s 10,000 Days, remain one of the most high-profile acts to still be resisting their bleak future of digital music dissemination and measly royalties. But according to a new report from Bloomberg, that might all be about to change. According to “people with knowledge of the matter,” Maynard Keenan and his cohort have been talking to Spotify and Apple Music about making their catalog -- including albums like Lateralus and Undertow -- available to stream, for the first time ever. This would happen ahead of the impending release of the band’s new album, according to Bloomberg. (The band didn’t comment.) Rumors of a new Tool LP have been circulating for years, but in January, sketchy, non-committal comments from the generally-reclusive Keenan about progress on new Tool music began to fuel speculation anew. Guitarist Adam Jones has also released cryptic Instagram communiques that seem to indicate that Tool has been working on new material. The band is also set to perform a slew of shows in the United States and Canada in May and June, including an appearance at Governors Ball in NYC. This article originally appeared in Spin.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Ducati's MotoGP test plan has suffered a blow after the Bologna factory wrongly interpreted the testing rules in booking the Losail Circuit in Qatar for a private test on Sunday and Monday. The plan for the private test had been to have Casey Stoner test the Ducati Desmosedici GP (or GP16, as everyone else calls it) at Qatar on Sunday and Monday, after the official IRTA test had finished at the track. The benefits for Ducati would have been that Stoner would have been testing on a relatively clean track under broadly similar conditions as the other MotoGP riders, allowing a good back-to-back comparison of the feedback between the factory riders and Stoner. Unfortunately, Ducati's plans are in clear breach of MotoGP's testing rules, and Race Direction has ruled that they cannot test. Testing at a circuit within fourteen days of an event is banned, as is clearly stated in the rules: 1.15.1.1 MotoGP Class B. Test Riders b) Test riders may test at any circuit, at any time, using only their team’s Test Tyre Allocation. Tests are not permitted within the 14 days before a GP event at a circuit unless authorised by Race Direction. Ducati initially told reporters there had been some confusion over whether the period of fourteen days was from the race, or from the start of practice, which in the case of Qatar is on Thursday, 17th March. However, even by the most liberal definition of the rules, Stoner would only have been able to test on the Sunday, and not the Monday. If the rule includes the first session of practice on the 17th March, then Stoner would have been unable to test altogether. The alternative would have been to have Stoner testing during the official IRTA test at Qatar. That, however, would have been problematic. Stoner was slated to test the GP16, but with the bike still so new, parts and bikes are in short supply. Having Stoner test a GP16 would have meant taking at least one, and possibly two bikes away from the factory Ducati riders, Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone. As this is the last test before the start of the season, that would have been an undesirable distraction, and would have restricted their test program. Though Ducati values Stoner's input highly, he will not be racing this season, whereas Dovizioso and Iannone are charged with bringing Ducati their first victory since Stoner left the factory in 2010. Though it is almost inconceivable that as well-run a factory as Ducati could make such an obvious error by booking a track for a private test during the period in which testing is banned, they are not alone. According to GPOne.com, Yamaha had scheduled a private test at Qatar with Colin Edwards on 8th and 9th March, well within the test ban period, with no leeway for interpretation. Ducati's poor planning could have been corrected if Race Direction had been so inclined. Testing within fourteen days of a race is allowed with the express permission of Race Direction, and given the circumstances - a test directly after the full MotoGP grid had just done three days of testing at the circuit, meaning the advantage for Ducati was negligible - they may have been lenient. That, however, would have caused problems down the road for other factories.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Charlie Sheen: LAPD Investigate Possible Restraining Order Violation Restraining order prohibits "Two and a Half Men" actor from having firearms. March 11, 2011 -- Authorities found an antique gun at Charlie Sheen's California home late Thursday while investigating a possible violation of his temporary restraining order that prohibits the actor from having weapons. "His Temporary Restraining Order states that: Restrained person cannot own, possess, have, buy, or try to buy, receive or try to receive, or in any other way get guns, other firearms or ammunition," Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Norma Eisenman said. " It came to the attention of the detectives that Mr. Sheen may have weapons in the home, and they are visiting him to make sure that he is abiding by the terms of his TRO." On Twitter, Sheen tweeted: "all good here on homefront. all reports are false. I'll explain more very soon." The embattled actor later followed up with another tweet: "the LAPD were AWESOME. Absolute pros! they can protect and serve this Warlock anytime!!! c." Sheen is not allowed to have firearms or guns as part of the restraining order requested by estranged wife Brooke Mueller. Stacy Ball, a police representative at the Van Nuys station, said officers found an antique gun. Sheen was forced last week to give Mueller their twin boys, Bob and Max. Mueller reportedly sought sole custody of the children. She accused Sheen that he had threatened her. But attorneys for Sheen and Mueller released a statement Thursday night that the couple have "reached an agreement that resolves their differences," the Associated Press reported. Details of the arrangement were confidential according to the statement. A hearing was previously scheduled for March 22. Other Legal Troubles "Two and a Half Men" creator Chuck Lorre's attorney Howard Weitzman responded today in a statement to a lawsuit filed by Charlie Sheen against Lorre and Warner Bros. "The allegations in the complaint against Mr. Lorre are as recklessly false and unwarranted as Mr. Sheen's rantings in the media. These accusations are simply imaginary. This lawsuit is about a fantasy 'lottery' pay-day for Charlie Sheen. Chuck Lorre's concern has been and continues to be about Mr. Sheen's health," read the statement. READ THE FULL COURT FILING HERE: Sheen is suing on behalf of the crew and demanding to be paid for the eight scrapped "Two and a Half Men" episodes, totaling more than $100 million. Warner Bros. declined to comment. "Chuck Lorre, one of the richest men in television who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, believes himself to be so wealthy and powerful that he can unilaterally decide to take money away from the dedicated cast and crew of the popular television series, 'Two and a Half Men,' in order to serve his own ego and self-interest, and make the star of the series the scapegoat for Lorre's own conduct," Marty Singer, Sheen's attorney, wrote in the lawsuit's preamble. Lorre is the main subject for derision in the court filing. Charlie's "Condition"? The suit also alleges that Warner Bros. violated Sheen's Fair Employment and Housing Act rights against harassment and discrimination in employment because of his alleged medical condition. "WB has accused Mr. Sheen of having physical and mental disabilities," the filing says. "According to WB, health care experts have observed Mr. Sheen in an alleged 'manic' and/or 'bipolar' state; other health-care experts have described Mr. Sheen as suffering from 'hypomanic' psychological state. WB further claims Mr. Sheen has had a rapid physical and mental deterioration of this condition. WB bluntly states that Mr. Sheen is very ill," according to the court document. Did Sheen Want Help? The filing notes that "on or about March 7, 2011, WB refused to reasonably accommodate Mr. Sheen from Warner Bros. claim that Mr. Sheen has an alleged illness and need for medical care and/or treatment when it terminated his employment contract. Rather than accommodate Mr. Sheen for Warner Bros. claim that Mr. Sheen has alleged physical and mental disabilities, WB instead terminated Mr. Sheen's employment agreement." The allegation by Sheen is that his termination is a violation of FEHA Against Defendant (Fair Employment and Housing Act). Vanity Cards Sheen's attorney's cite various examples of "harassing statements" Mr. Lorre made in his "vanity cards" that appear at the end of Mr. Lorre's shows that target "Mr. Sheen's alleged illness." Sheen's lawyers say the five listed in the court filing contain obvious references to Mr. Sheen. Here is one example: READ THE FULL COURT FILING HERE: Sheen's Finances Without his nearly $2-million-per-episode salary from "Two and a Half Men," Charlie Sheen has been forced to find new ways to score some cash. But replacing that salary hasn't been easy. While reality TV might seem like a good fit, but reality TV producer Michael Hirschorn has his doubts. "I think he probably is too crazy even for reality TV. They'd want to know he is going to show up and I think the network would have a real question about that," said Hirschorn. Sheen has always seen himself as a film actor first. He used his track record to jab his former co-star Jon Cryer, telling E News on Tuesday, "When I'm starring in multi-million dollar films and he's begging me for a supporting role, I'll say, 'You left me out in the cold.'" Yet it doesn't seem like any multi-million dollar films are on the horizon. "Charlie Sheen has made a lot of statements about movies he may or may not be doing. Right now there is nothing solid," said Matthew Belloni of the Hollywood Reporter. Sheen is also reportedly looking into getting involved in selling merchandise. IN PHOTOS: Charlie Sheen Through the Years "Charlie has been talking to Live Nation about putting together some sort of merchandising deal to get some of his new catch phrases - like Vatican assassin warlock - onto T-shirts, etc." said Belloni. Sheen is also looking to Twitter for income. Once TV's highest paid sitcom star, Sheen has reportedly inked a deal with Ad.ly to endorse products on Twitter. Sheen told TMZ his primary motivation for joining Twitter last week was that it's a "cash cow." And, as he pointed out to TMZ, "I'm unemployed." The unemployed actor was off to a strong start. In just over a day, he attracted 1.1 million followers, setting a new Guinness world record. Ad.ly's CEO told The Hollywood Reporter that Sheen could make $1 million a year as a celebrity tweeter. That's chump change compared to what the actor was making before CBS postponed his show, a reported $2 million per episode. Sheen also announced via Twitter that he is launching a live tour starting on April 2 in Detroit, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Another business opportunity for Sheen has been proffered by Mark Cuban's HDNet cablet network. Cuban described Sheen as "somebody that everybody has a whole lot of interest in who is doing some interesting things, to say the least" according to AP. CLICK HERE to See Charlie Sheen's Celebrity 'Cabinet' With four young children to support, the actor needs money, especially since his spending habits haven't changed. Sheen is reportedly purchasing a new $7.5 million home in Beverly Hills, Calif. According to GQ magazine, Sheen spent more than $1 million on new cars during his first week in rehab last month, adding to an already large collection. His other purchases, according to GQ, include renting out the Astrodome so "a few friends" could take "batting practice," and paying porn star Kacey Jordan $30,000 for a party he held at his home in January. Sheen's friend Eric Braun told the magazine that Sheen has so much money he can't "piss it away." "Most people run out of money, they burn out and then they finally hit rock bottom," Braun said, but those close to Sheen worry that "Charlie is not going to hit rock bottom financially." Braun believes "there are just three options" left for his friend: "rehab, jail or death." Sheen's No. 1 concern, though, is getting back to work. With the future of his No. 1 sitcom in jeopardy, Sheen has said he would demand $3 million an episode from his CBS bosses if they wanted him back. He later told CNN's Piers Morgan he was just joking. He's serious about being paid for the remainder of this season, however. According to Radar Online, Sheen's attorney, Singer, sent a threatening letter to CBS and to Warner Bros., the show's producer, demanding that Sheen be paid for the remaining eight episodes of the season or there would be legal action. Is Sheen just crying poor, or does he really need the money? Living in the fast lane doesn't come cheap. Below, an accounting of some of Sheen's biggest debts and assets: Cars Sheen is still driving in style. He arrived at the Piers Morgan interview in a $500,000 Maybach. When his 2009 Mercedes-Benz ended up at the bottom of a cliff off Mulholland Drive last February, he went out and got a 2010 Mercedes-Benz. That one was found at the foot of a cliff five months later. (Maybe that's when he got the Maybach or stopped leaving the keys in his cars when they were parked in his open garage.) Plus, there's the more than $1 million he spent on cars during his lastest round of rehab, according to GQ. Charlie Sheen's Life Without 'Two and a Half Men' Homes Sheen owns several. The all-night party that landed him in the hospital in January took place at his 7,924-square-foot Mulholland Drive estate, for which he paid $7.2 million in early 2006. After he divorced his third wife, Brooke Mueller, she moved into the four-bedroom 4,179-square-foot house in Los Feliz that Sheen purchased for $2.5 million in 2007. Sheen owns two smaller homes in Malibu and a condo in Marina Del Rey. He gave a condo he once owned in Malibu to his sister Renee Estevez, an actress. He also gave his 20-something daughter Cassandra Estevez a 3,231-square-foot house in Ventura County that he once owned. Ex-Wives and Children Sheen has three ex-wives and five children, including his grown daughter Cassandra. He's paying his most recent ex, Mueller, $55,000 a month in child support for their 2-year-old twin boys, Max and Bob. Mueller also received a parting gift of $757,689.70 and primary physical custody of the kids. After the boys were removed from his home last week, on Twitter, Sheen said: "not sure what all the legal noise is about ... just verbally reached a deal with B. no court mon. yay." Sheen paid his second wife, Denise Richards, $40 million for less than three years of marriage, according to "Extra." That includes a $7-million divorce settlement; $20 million in syndication royalties from Sheen's sitcom; and nearly $10 million in child support for his daughters, Sam and Lola, until the girls turn 18.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Overview (4) Born April 18, 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA Birth Name Conan Christopher O'Brien Nicknames Consie Coney The Cone-Zone Conando Coco Big Red The Maestro The Conebone Height 6' 4" (1.93 m) Mini Bio (1) Conan O'Brien grew up in a large, Irish Catholic family in Massachusetts. At an early age, he developed a love of comedy and goofing off, this carried on when he entered the prestigious Harvard University, acting out many pranks in his time, as well as become the president of the Harvard humor magazine, the Harvard Lampoon. After leaving Harvard, Conan found his way into a television writing job in LA. After jumping around on many unsuccessful shows, Conan moved out to New York to win an Emmy for his writing on Saturday Night Live (1975). Later, he moved on to work for Die Simpsons (1989), when SNL Executive Producer Lorne Michaels offered him the job of producer for the now vacant 12:30 slot on NBC. Conan, after searching for a new host, decided to audition for the job himself, and eventually wound up as the host of Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993). - IMDb Mini Biography By: Kevin Newcombe < [email protected]> Spouse (1) Trade Mark (11) Since 9/11, no longer begins the show by jumping around the stage but still makes the big final leap onto his mark and then spins his arm to "throw" to Max Frequently lampoons how much he is "unknown," "disliked," or poorly paid compared to guests and his "competition," despite the fact that the opposite is sometimes true Frequently makes jokes at his own expense and at the expense of band leader Max Weinberg, and band member La Bamba Frequently knocks over the microphone at his desk, usually after an awkward moment or brazen joke The string dance (a little made-up jig where he pulls an imaginary string behind his back, which moves his hips, and finishes by cutting it) Neatly combed and parted hair Usually ends his show with the phrase "bye, everybody, bye," spoken very rapidly. Beard Towering height Sometimes playfully hisses or purs at female guests like a cat or jumps around excitedly when flirted with Often jokes about the audience's reaction to a previously said joke Trivia (58) Worked as a warmup comic for the The Wilton North Report (1987). Born at 1:38pm-EST His favorite episode of Die Simpsons (1989) is "Marge vs. the Monorail". A distant cousin of Denis Leary Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, with a BA in American History & Literature. [1985] He was editor of the Harvard Lampoon for two years in a row, and he is the second person to have ever done this. It had been 85 years since it was done. Had a golden retriever named Hudson, who was originally part of a sketch on "Late Night". He now has a golden retriever named Bosco. Married Liza Powel on January 12, 2002, in a full Catholic Mass by Father Paul O'Brien (no relation) at St. James Cathedral in Liza's home town, Seattle. The couple met when Liza was a guest on Late Night. A graduate of Brookline High School. Once shared an apartment with Bill Cusack Took tap dancing lessons as a child The name of his production company, Conaco, was chosen to echo the name of petroleum company Conoco. Daughter Neve O'Brien born October 14, 2003 in New York (6 lbs., 10 oz.). Calls where he does his monologue "The Laugh Zone." Calls where he sits "The Chat Zone." In the 2001 film, Sugar & Spice (2001), one of the cheerleaders is obsessed with "Conan O'Brien". Replaced David Letterman in the late night slot on NBC after Letterman left for CBS. Virtually no one thought the show would last. It did last, for 17 years. Plays guitar. Hosted Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) until 2009 when he replaced Jay Leno as host of NBC's Tonight Show. He was fired from The Tonight Show after less than a year because he refused to start the show later. He felt like that wouldn't really be The Tonight Show in a different time slot. Afterward he went on a nationwide comedy and music tour before taking a job at TBS as host of "Conan" in 2010. Became the 5th host of "The Tonight Show" on its 55th anniversary. Both of his parents are of Irish descent. His show was cancelled for one night and brought back because the network's executives wanted to find a replacement show before cancelling the show. A replacement show was never needed. In the beginning season of the show, he signed a new contract every week because the network was doubtful of the show's future and his ratings. Originally wanted to name his daughter the old-fashioned Irish feminine name Niamh (pronounced "knee-vh" or "neh-v"), which means "radiance, lustre, brightness" -- but decided that her life would be easier if they Americanized the spelling to Neve. Son, Beckett O'Brien, was born on November 9, 2005 in New York City, weighing in at 8 lbs. 4 oz. Once shared an apartment with comedian/actor Jeff Garlin in Chicago across from Wrigley Field before both of them made it big. When Burt Ward was asked to give a speech at Harvard about his role on Batman (1966), he brought the original costume, said to be valued at half a million dollars. Some students came up to him dressed as security guards and told him they would keep the costume safe. Then in the middle of the speech, one student stood up and asked, "When is a costume not a costume? When it's stolen." The lights dimmed and the students grabbed the costume and made off. After snapping pictures with one another in the cape, they later called Ward and gave the costume back. The ringleader of the gang? Harvard Lampoon editor, Conan O'Brien. In one episode of his show, a Finnish man in his audience pointed out to him that he looked like President Tarja Halonen. He decided to support Halonen in the election campaign in 2006, and started a skit called "Pro-Finland, Anti- Sweden". Halonen met with him and Halonen gave to him as a gift, Moomin dolls for his family. For Conan, the most beautiful woman in the world is Gisele Bündchen . He had the opportunity of telling her personally this when she was a guest on his show in 2005. One of his all-time favorite television shows is Männerwirtschaft (1970). Son-in-law of Seattle Dixieland band-leader Jake Powel. Close friends with writer Chris Graves Owns a summer home in Norfolk, Massachusetts. Is an avid fan of filmmaker Kevin Smith Often tries to calm his "Late Night" audience with the term "Cool Babies". This is a lyric from the Talking Heads song, "Burning Down the House". Claims he lost his virginity listening to The Who Grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. At 46 years old, he was the oldest person at the time to start hosting "The Tonight Show". When Jay Leno took "The Tonight Show" back over, if you consider that to be "starting" hosting again, then he would be the oldest now. Otherwise, his record still stands. He was given the nickname "Coco" by Tom Hanks on the second episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009). Conan jokingly replied "If that sticks, I'm going to sue you!" The name "Coco" would later be used for the Team Coco online campaign to support him during the "Late Night Wars" in late 2009. Prior to her death, Conan frequently parodied Anna Nicole Smith and made jokes about her being a gold digger and a ditzy blonde during his monologues but, after she passed away, he immediately stopped as a gesture of respect. Maintains a country retreat in the secluded, Litchfield County town of Washington, Connecticut. [May 2007] After leaving The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009), Conan kicked off a comedy tour and signed a contract with TBS to start his new show Conan (2010). [April 2010] Visited Finland. [February 2006] Ended his contract with the Tonight Show on NBC and may return to television in September. [January 2010] Resides in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. Shortly after New York state legalized gay marriage, Conan became an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church so he could officiate the wedding of one of his producers on his show while it was being taped that week in New York City. He hates mushrooms. Is a huge fan of author Flannery O'Connor , "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" being his favorite of her books. On a July 26, 2020 episode of his podcast, he revealed that Lorne Michaels had him be an extra in Coneheads (1993) but his scenes were deleted. Born on the same date as Eric McCormack Personal Quotes (10) The nightmare is you spend the rest of your life being funny at parties and then people say 'Why didn't you do that when you were on television?' If you can really laugh at yourself loud and hard every time you fall, people will think you're drunk. "I've always believed, in my heart of hearts, that it would be a better show if, when I crossed over to the desk, the band kept playing for an hour and I danced in a cage. If I existed 200 years ago, all the other farmers in my community would be like, 'That guy is worthless! He's sitting on a rock, jumping up like a frog, coming up with weird concepts and ideas, making faces, and combing his hair into a giant pastry.' It's a good thing I was born in this century, when superfluous television seems to be part of the economy. [Final words at the final The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009)]: And all I ask is one thing and this is... I'm asking this particularly of young people that watch. Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism; for the record, it's my least favorite quality, it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, it's just true. [jokingly, on similarities with Howdy Doody] I'm controlled by others, I have artificial joints, and I have no soul. These freckles are painted on. If you wanted the most simple way to understand how America changed between 1954 and 2005, it would be [that] we've mutated from Howdy Doody to Triumph. That's either really good news or bad new for America. I'm suspecting it's bad news. [returning from a trip to Cuba, 2015] Maybe it isn't a bad form of diplomacy to send a comedian over. Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen. Where were you in the 80s and the 90s when nothing was going on for Cony? Then I get married and it's raining ladies! Salary (4)	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
CARROLLTON, Ohio — A 50-mile chase across three counties left a state trooper injured and a cruiser severely damaged when the reckless driver rammed the trooper at one point during the chase. Authorities used spike strips to stop the driver, who is now in custody. The chase started in Carrollton after the driver of a Ford F-250 truck, later identified as 23-year-old Tristen Shepherd of Sherrodsville, pulled out of gas station and was driving recklessly in front of a local police officer, according to an Ohio State Highway Patrol official at the scene. OSHP got involved in the chase as they headed towards Canton and they were notified by Canton police, according to Lt. Leo Shirkey with OSHP. Canton Police deployed spike strips at SR-43 and US-30, deflating the truck’s two front tries, Shirkey said. Shepherd kept driving on US-30 West and then I-77 North. Once Shepherd got to the area around the Akron Canton Airport, troopers positioned a rolling roadblock, according to Shirkey. An OSHP trooper merged to get in front of the chase at Route 62 and I-77 North. The driver rammed the trooper at a high rate of speed and continued north on I-77. The trooper sustained a back injury and was taken to the hospital. The damage to the trooper’s cruiser was so severe that it broke the cage behind the driver and cracked the hard plastic rear seat. After the crash, Shepherd kept driving, Shirkey said. A trooper attempted a PIT maneuver several times and was finally successful in spinning the truck out near the South Arlington Road exit overpass along I-77 North, officials said. Shepherd was arrested and taken back to Carrol County, Shirkey said. OSHP is filing the following charges against Shepherd: fleeing and eluding, vehicular assault, OVI, reckless operation and driving under suspension. According to Shirkey, speeds during the OSHP’s portion of the chase reached 75 to 80 mph. In total, two OSHP cruisers and one Carrollton police cruiser were damaged. The injured trooper was released from the hospital.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Formatting may be lacking as a result. If this article is un-readable please report it so that we may fix it. Posted on October 24, 2012, Ross Lincoln Rebuilding The Future: How BioWare Can Bounce Back Get the latest Bioware gaming guides and secrets on Game Front’s mobile apps. Don’t miss a single new video from Mitch, James, or Zac as they mine gaming’s depths for new cheats, collectibles, and easter eggs. Download GameFront’s iOS Video Walkthroughs app Download GameFront’s Droid Video Walkthroughs app Once beloved by gamers on a level comparable to Nintendo’s late 80s/early 90s golden years (thanks to a string of critical and fan favs culminating in the groundbreaking Mass Effect Series), BioWare has fallen on harder times in more recent years. Recent games, most notably Dragon Age 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic, have performed below expectations (with SWTOR facing the humiliating prospect of going FTP before it even had a year to grow.) And the infamous backlash over the ending of Mass Effect 3 is only the most famous PR clusterbomb the company has experienced since 2010. Most recently, as the company reels from one of the biggest backlashes in gaming history, several high ranking staffers have quit, including studio founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, exits that look a lot like people fleeing a burning building. After a couple of years like that, it’s understandable if people think the company is at the top of a long slope, poised to begin a painful descent. But it doesn’t have to turn out like that. Despite a couple years’ worth of missteps and miscalculations, the company that made Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 is still also the company that made Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins. We’d like it to stay that way. Though we don’t normally indulge in outright industry analysis, we spend a lot of time here at Game Front discussing BioWare’s trials and tribulations. With that record – and yes, that caveat – in mind, we’ve taken a deep look into the current state of BioWare, with an eye on how they can bounce back from a rough patch that has other developers proclaiming that ‘there but for the grace of god…’ and all that. It won’t be easy to do, and it’s going to require a huge right turn from where economic and creative inertia is currently pushing them, but BioWare can bounce back. And we think we know how. Step One: Return To Your Roots When Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka announced their departure from the company they founded, my first thought was that we could go ahead and write BioWare off. It was becoming, I said at the time, just another brand name, something parent company EA will slap on certain games to class them up a bit, regardless of (and especially without) merit. For this reason alone, before BioWare does anything else, it must work diligently to reassure gamers and the industry alike that the name still means something by returning to its roots. This means disassociating BioWare from Electronic Arts’ role playing ‘division’. In early 2010, EA renamed that Division the ‘BioWare Division’; at the time, the idea seemed to be that BioWare would now be spearheading the mass production of high quality RPG games, the sort that built their stellar reputation. EA, for its part, seemed intent on becoming known for having made the proliferation of the BioWare-Style RPG genre possible. Instead, the opposite has happened. Though some signs were evident in the years after EA first acquired them, BioWare’s output since the official christening of the BioWare Division has been defined by two things: the watering down of elements native to the BioWare RPG; and the proliferation of the name itself, rather than what that name means. While BioWare Montreal and BioWare Austin were created prior to the EA acquisition, their fullest fruition as developers within the BioWare family occurred in the years after. Both studios were at least founded specifically by BioWare, but since the creation of the BioWare Group, Electronic Arts has renamed Mythic Entertainment as ‘BioWare Mythic’, and Victory Games as ‘BioWare Victory’. The problem is that both studios are working on projects with potentially disastrous consequences for their namesake. Mythic is currently working on Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, an MMORPG largely centered around PVP arenas. Meanwhile, BioWare Victory is currently working on the upcoming Command & Conquer, a multiplayer only, free to play facsimile of the venerable series. To put it mildly, the fact that Command & Conquer wasn’t orginally intended to have a single player option (and make no mistake, it might never have one) has not been well received. And the prospects for a Warhammer MMO are not great, particularly in light of how THQ’s attempt to make one ended up. We won’t know for certain until release, but there is a strong possibility both games will flop, and and if they do, no one is going to remember that the studios involved were only renamed BioWare to comply with EA’s branding designs. What they’ll remember is that BioWare had two bonafide failures on top of a two-year stretch of missteps, and it’ll be seen as proof that the once great studio has lost its golden touch forever. And as for the fans who are aware of the process by which these studios became part of BioWare? They’ll still be annoyed by the way BioWare seemed to have no problem soiling its name. Luckily, there’s an easy way to avoid this fate: ditch the franchise operations. Just restore Mythic and Victory to their original names and let the games they’re working on succeed or fail on their own. It might be hard to see shrinking on such a scale as a canny move, but BioWare’s primary operations are still based in Edmonton (with Austin heading up SWTOR, and Montreal handling support duties). Making that fact official will help reassure fans that the company is once again committed to doing what it did best, and in the places at which said best was done. Now, as for EA? I get it: In creating the BioWare Division, you were going after your own version of the old Nintendo Seal Of Approval. So why not come up with something that still suggests an approved family of titles without forcing your most prestigious acquisition to soak up the stench of barely-associated missteps? BioWare’s Renegade/Paragon system is an important innovation, so why not just use one of them to name your RPG division. Doesn’t EA Renegade has a nice ring to it? See, Problem solved.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
EMBARGOED BY BROOKINGS UNTIL 1 PM EDT March 22, 2012: PRESENTATION: AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY: Fiscal Policy in a Depressed Economy J. Bradford DeLong and Lawrence H. Summers March 23, 2012 We are here to say that, as a matter of arithmetic, in a depressed economy like the present, if a long deep recession casts even a small shadow on future potential output, with interest rates in the range at which the U.S. has been able to borrow, there is a substantial likelihood that expansionary fiscal policy right now would be self-financing, and an overwhelming likelihood that it would pass a benefit-cost test. Since the start of 2007, CBO has repeatedly and substantially marked down its estimates of potential output a decade hence. For each percent that output falls below potential for a year, the CBO mark down its estimate of the long run potential of the economy by 0.2%. The CBO is not an outlier among forecasters. If higher output this year raises potential output in the future by a fraction η because it reduces the shadow cast by the downturn through discouraged workers, lost skills, broken organizations, and missing investment on future productivity, then boosting government purchases now, in an environment with a policy-relevant net-of-monetary-policy-offset Keynesian multiplier μ, boosts future real GDP by the multiplier times some hysteresis coefficient η. That means that in an environment with a tax rate τ, the flow of future total tax collections are boosted by τημ. The extra debt incurred by a temporary government purchases expansion ΔG in an environment with a policy-relevant net-of-monetary-policy-offset Keynesian multiplier μ and a tax rate τ is (1 - μτ). If the government maintains a stable debt-to-GDP ratio then the cost of amortizing this extra debt is (r - g)(1 - μτ), where r is the real interest rate at which the Treasury borrows, and g is the long-term growth rate of the economy. If: r < g + τημ/(1 - μτ) then we simply cannot do a benefit-cost calculation for expansionary fiscal policy. It is self-financing. There are no costs. No future tax increases are needed to amortize the extra debt, because economic growth does it on its own. It is, rather, austerity that requires future tax increases. For a multiplier μ = 1.0, a hysteresis shadow-cast-by-the-recession coefficient η = 0.1, a growth rate g = 2.5%/year, and a tax share τ = 1/3, this critical value of r becomes: r < 7.5% The long-run Treasury borrowing rate needs to be above 7.5%/year in real terms--above 9.5%/year in nominal terms--for fiscal expansion to be a bad deal. For a multiplier μ = 0.5, a hysteresis shadow-cast-by-the-recession coefficient η = 0.05, a growth rate g = 2.5%/year, and a tax share τ = 1/3, (6) becomes: r < 3.75% The long-run Treasury borrowing rate needs to be above 3.75%/year in real terms--above 5.75%/year in nominal terms--for fiscal expansion to be a bad deal. Note that this applies only to a depressed economy, and only as long as the monetary authority cannot or will not--but in any case does not--carry out the government's full stabilization policy mission all by itself. If the self-financing condition fails, there is a benefit-cost calculation to do. Write down the net effect of expansionary fiscal policy on the present value of future output: ΔV = [μ(1 + η(1 + ξτ)/(r-g) - ξ(1 - μτ)]ΔG with ξ being the national income lost from raising an extra dollar of revenue from future taxes. The last term is the burden placed on the economy from the taxes needed to amortize the additional debt. The second term is the extra future production because lessening the current downturn lessens the destructive shadow cast on the economy in the long run. This middle term plausibly doubles or triples the benefits of expansionary policy above those of higher output from the multiplier μ in the present period alone. (9) tells us that, for a multiplier μ = 0.5, an η = 0.05, τ = 1/3, g = .025, and an r = 6%, expansionary fiscal policy passes its benefit-cost test as long as raising $1.00 in extra tax revenue through distortionary taxes reduces national income by less than $10.00. In this depressed-economy framework at least, you have to get far out toward the edge of the parameter space in order for expansionary fiscal policy to flunk its cost-benefit test. Does this prove too much? No. In normal times the logic of Taylor (2000) that stabilization policy should be left to the monetary authority still holds. It is only in extraordinary times, like now, that this argument has force. In normal times expansionary fiscal policy as a stabilization policy will flunk its benefit-cost test. In normal times the multiplier μ will be close to zero. Perhaps the monetary authority will have a view about how the economy should evolve in a way that is consistent with long-run price stability, will not want its elbow joggled by others, and will thus take anticipatory steps to offset any effect of expansionary fiscal policy on output. Perhaps the monetary authority will watch fiscal expansion raise output, disapprove of the resultant increase in inflation, and then offset it by creating an equal and opposite output gap later. Either way the policy-relevant multiplier μ is zero. Either way, expansionary fiscal policy as stabilization policy has only costs and no stabilization-policy benefits. In a depressed economy, however, there is less increase in inflationary expectations following from higher output, and less reason for the monetary authority to fully offset the effects of expansionary fiscal policy. Hence our conclusions. How could this argument go wrong? The fear is that expansionary fiscal policy will lead to a collapse in confidence in the government, and a spiking of interest and inflation rates to previously-unseen values. But since austerity appears, for what we see as reasonable parameter values, at least as likely likely to erode the government's fiscal room to maneuver than temporary expansion, this seems backward. if the logic of this argument is correct, then it is a failure to engage in expansionary fiscal policy right now--a failure to speed recovery and so reduce the long-term shadow cast on future productivity by the downturn--that is the real threat to long-run fiscal stability. Sovereign debt crises can be triggered by rises in spending due to expansion. They can also be triggered by falls in growth and taxes due to austerity.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it may have “unintentionally uploaded” email contacts of 1.5 million new users since May 2016, in what seems to be the latest privacy-related issue faced by the social media company. In March, Facebook had stopped offering email password verification as an option for people who signed up for the first time, the company said. There were cases in which email contacts of people were uploaded to Facebook when they created their account, the company said. “We estimate that up to 1.5 million people’s email contacts may have been uploaded. These contacts were not shared with anyone and we are deleting them,” Facebook told Reuters, adding that users whose contacts were imported will be notified. The underlying glitch has been fixed, according to the company statement. Business Insider had earlier reported that the social media company harvested email contacts of the users without their knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts. When an email password was entered, a message popped up saying it was “importing” contacts without asking for permission first, the report said. Facebook has been hit by a number of privacy-related issues recently, including a glitch that exposed passwords of millions of users stored in readable format within its internal systems to its employees. Last year, the company came under fire following revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, obtained personal data of millions of people’s Facebook profiles without their consent. The company has also been facing criticism from lawmakers across the world for what has been seen by some as tricking people into giving personal data to Facebook and for the presence of hate speech and data portability on the platform. Separately, Facebook was asked to ensure its social media platform is not abused for political purposes or to spread misinformation during elections.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
This is a very painful piece of news for the Moscow Patriarchate and very weighty one for the Catholic and the whole Christian world. Press secretary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya) has said the Holy See has recognized agency of the united local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. "The official Vatican news portal on December 17 reported about the election of Metropolitan Epifaniy as head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine," he wrote on Facebook on December 18. Read alsoMetropolitan Epifaniy: No seizure of ex-UOC-MP's temples by force (Video) By doing this, the Holy See demonstrates it has recognized the newly created Ukrainian church's capacity to act due to canonical recognition by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and its metropolitan, the archbishop said. "[This is] a very painful piece of news for the Moscow Patriarchate. And very weighty one for the Catholic and the whole Christian world," Yevstratiy said. The archbishop noted that the lack of Eucharistic unity between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church determines that the first one does not officially carry out any ecclesiastical act of recognizing autocephaly, but in fact the dissemination of this official news is a signal to all who still doubt, including local churches: diplomacy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has defeated Moscow's attempts. According to Yevstratiy, this means that those Orthodox churches that have not yet decided on the recognition of autocephaly received a weighty argument to do that immediately after a tomos is handed over to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. As UNIAN reported earlier, the unification council of representatives of Ukrainian Orthodox churches on December 15 elected Epifaniy (Serhiy Dumenko) head of the united local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It will be Epifaniy who will on January 6, 2019, receive from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Constantinople (Istanbul) a tomos (a decree), granting autocephaly (independence) to the newly created church.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The Commons at Providence Station, a $55M apartment building near the State House, will begin construction after being awarded a $5.6 million tax credit. PROVIDENCE — The first project to earn financial assistance under the state's new Rebuild Rhode Island tax credit program is expected to celebrate a groundbreaking Wednesday as the development team begins its $55-million construction of a six-story apartment building in the Capital Center District. The real-estate development firm Trilogy Development LLC, of Providence, and the residential-management firm John M. Corcoran & Co. LLC, of Braintree, Massachusetts, are working as partners to develop The Commons at Providence Station. They've created a real-estate entity for this project, Capital Cove Development LLC, of Braintree, Trilogy President Kevin Chase told The Providence Journal on Tuesday. Their 169-unit building will be at 80 Smith St., east of the railroad tracks and the State House, and at the intersection of Smith and Canal streets. The firms expect the one- and two-bedroom apartments to be completed in summer 2018 — and to rent for $2,000 and $2,700 per month, respectively, Chase said. The smaller units will be about 710 square feet, and the larger ones will be slightly larger than 1,000 square feet. Two banks — Blue Hills Bank and Eastern Bank, both in Massachusetts — have loaned the partners 65 percent of the total project cost, Chase said. He would not say how much equity the two privately owned firms have invested. The team's general contractor, Tocci Building Companies of Woburn, Massachusetts, has begun work on the vacant 2.85-acre parcel and should continue through winter, Chase said. The development will include two underground levels of parking, 169 spaces in all. Rhode Islanders should see the building taking shape above ground by spring, Chase said. "It's exciting," Gov. Gina Raimondo said Tuesday. She expects to attend the groundbreaking Wednesday at 2 p.m. "It's the first shovels in the ground." After the General Assembly adopted the Raimondo administration's package of economic-development incentives in 2015, including the Rebuild R.I. tax credits, the R.I. Commerce Corporation worked to develop program rules and regulations. This January, the Commerce board approved its first two Rebuild projects. The Commons project was awarded a credit of $5.6 million. A credit of $2.73 million was awarded to a $10-million residential and commercial real-estate project by Bourne Avenue Capital Partners at 93 Cranston St. The Rebuild program awards tax credits to developers once a building gets a certificate of occupancy. Then, the developers may use the credits to offset their own tax liability, or they may sell the credits to another entity or redeem them with the state for cash, at 90 percent of the value. The Commerce Corporation has awarded Rebuild credits to 16 projects, although one project that won approval later withdrew from the program before finalizing a contract, Commerce President Darin Early told The Journal. In all, those credits equal $44.5 million. The projects are expected to cost $394 million to develop. Eleven months after the Commons project won approval, Raimondo said the first project was expected to take time. But reflecting on nearly a year's worth of work and 15 projects that are in various stages of progress, Raimondo said results are beginning to show. "Fifteen projects in a year is more than one a month," Raimondo said. "That's a very aggressive pace, and I'm pleased with that." — [email protected] (401) 277-7470 On Twitter: @JournalKate	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Stats geeks: now it’s your turn. Backblaze has released the raw data collected from the more than 41,000 disk drives in our data center. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest data set on disk drive performance ever to be made available publicly. Over the past 16 months, I have been posting information about hard drive reliability based on the raw data that we collect in the Backblaze data center. I have been crunching those numbers to correlate drive failures with drive model numbers, with SMART statistics, and other variables. There are lots of smart people out there who like working with data, and you may be one of them. Now it’s your turn to pore over the data and find hidden treasures of insight. All we ask is that if you find something interesting, that you post it publicly for the benefit of the computing community as a whole. What’s in the data? The data that we have released is in two files, one containing the 2013 data and one containing the 2014 data. We’ll add data for 2015 and so on in a similar fashion. Every day, the software that runs the Backblaze data center takes a snapshot of the state of every drive in the data center, including the drive’s serial number, model number, and all of its SMART data. The SMART data includes the number of hours the drive has been running, the temperature of the drive, whether sectors have gone bad, and many more things. (I wrote a blog post correlating SMART data with drive failures a few months ago.) Each day, all of the drive “snapshots” are processed and written to a new daily stats file. Each daily stats file has one row for every drive operational in the data center that day. For example, there are 365 daily stats files in the 2014 data package with each file containing a “snapshot” for each drive operational on any given day. What does it look like? Each daily stats file is in CSV (comma-separated value) format. The first line lists the names of the columns, and then each following line has all of the values for those columns. Here are the columns: Date: The date of the file in yyyy-mm-dd format. The date of the file in yyyy-mm-dd format. Serial Number: The manufacturer-assigned serial number of the drive. The manufacturer-assigned serial number of the drive. Model: The manufacturer-assigned model number of the drive. The manufacturer-assigned model number of the drive. Capacity: The drive capacity in bytes. The drive capacity in bytes. Failure: Contains a “0” if the drive is OK. Contains a “1” if this is the last day the drive was operational before failing. Contains a “0” if the drive is OK. Contains a “1” if this is the last day the drive was operational before failing. SMART Stats: 80 columns of data that are the raw and normalized values for 40 different SMART stats as reported by the given drive. Each value is the number reported by the drive. The Wikipedia page on SMART (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.) has a good description of all of the data, and what the raw and scaled values are. The short version is that the raw value is the data directly from the drive. For example, the “Power On Hours” attribute reports the number of hours in the raw value. The normalized value is designed to tell you when the drive is OK. It starts at 100 and goes down to zero as the drive gets sick. (Some drives count down from 200.) How to Compute Failure Rates One of my statistics professors once said, “it’s all about counting.” And that’s certainly true in this case. A failure rate says what fraction of drives have failed over a given time span. Let’s start by calculating a daily failure rate, which will tell us what fraction of drives fail each day. We’ll start by counting “drive days” and “failures.” To count drive days, we’ll take a look every day and see how many drives are running. Here’s a week in the life of a (small) data center: Each of the blue dots represents a drive running on a given day. On Sunday and Monday, there are 15 drives running. Then one goes away, and from Tuesday through Saturday there are 14 drives each day. Adding them up we get 15 + 15 + 14 + 14 + 14 + 14 + 14 = 100. That’s 100 drive days. Now, let’s look at drive failures. One drive failed on Monday and was not replaced. Then, one died on Wednesday and was promptly replaced. The red dots indicate the drive failures: So we have two drive failures in 100 drive days of operation. To get the daily failure rate, you simply divide. Two divided by 100 is 0.02, or 2%. The daily failure rate is 2%. The annual failure rate is the daily failure rate multiplied by 365. If we had a full year made of weeks like the one above, the annual failure rate would be 730%. Annual failures rates can be higher than 100%. Let’s think this through. Say we keep 100 drives running in our data center at all times, replacing drives immediately when they fail. At a daily failure rate of 2%, that means two drives fail each day, and after a year 730 drives will have died. We can have an annual failure rate above 100% if drives last less than a year on average. Computing failure rates from the data that Backblaze has released is a matter of counting drive days and counting failures. Each row in each daily drive stats file is one drive day. Each failure is marked with a “1” in the failure column. Once a drive has failed, it is removed from subsequent daily drive stats files. To get the daily failure rate of drives in the Backblaze data center, you can take the number of failures counted in a given group of daily stats files, and divide by the number of rows in the same group of daily stats files. That’s it! Where is the data? You’ll find links to download the data files here. You’ll also find instructions on how to create your own sqlite database for the data, and other information related to the files you can download. Let Us Know What You Find That’s about all you need to know about the data to get started. If you work with the data and find something interesting, let us know!	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Catherine O'Reilly was just the tip of the iceberg. It turns out that the whole O'Reilly family is nuts. Locke continues interviewing the rest of the family in the hopes of gathering important information, but the ongoing craziness makes things difficult. If you like what you hear and would like to help, we are on Patreon! patreon.com/7lamb Music provided by: "Cool Vibes" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB Console with Dragon Ball Fighterz Game Giveaway Hello guys I am here with an awesome giveaway of PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB Console Dragon Ball Fighterz - PlayStation 4 Game You just have to complete all the steps to get a chance to win one it.The more you share the more you get the chance to win.Good Luck Guys.This Giveaway can also be extended from it's due date if you all need more time for the entries.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The diplomat who said 'No' to Saudi oil Round the bend Tales from Britain's rule in India and beyond Published duration 8 November 2014 image copyright National Portrait Gallery, London image caption Sir Lancelot Oliphant photographed by Bassano in July 1939 Hindsight can be cruel. In 1932, amid a global economic slump, the impoverished Saudis came to London looking for a loan. They also had an offer: would Britain like to try drilling for oil? A disdainful Foreign Office mandarin gave the fateful reply, writes Matthew Teller - no loan, and no drilling. In the spring of 1932, King Abdulaziz - widely known as "Ibn Saud" - was ready to declare the foundation of a new united Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To get the message out and to secure the support of the global superpower - Great Britain - he sent his son, Faisal, on a European tour including London. Faisal arrived at Dover on Saturday 7 May and was soon installed in London's fashionable new Dorchester Hotel. After a Monday morning audience with George V, he spent most of his visit at leisure, including visits to a Surrey stud farm and RAF Hendon. It was the King's personal adviser, Fuad Bey Hamza, who had to raise the delicate question of money with a senior civil servant at the Foreign Office - Sir Lancelot Oliphant. Revenue from pilgrims visiting Mecca was sharply down. Oil had been discovered in neighbouring Persia and Mesopotamia (Iran and Iraq), but geologists doubted whether Arabia held any reserves. Hamza asked for a loan. In reply, Oliphant talked of "difficulties in this time of most stringent economy". Hamza said Ibn Saud sought only £500,000 in gold (several tens of millions of pounds in today's money). Oliphant responded that he would consult the relevant department. They moved on to other matters, but then Hamza brought up money again. Ibn Saud "looked to His Majesty's Government for material as well as moral support", said Hamza. An American engineer had compiled a report on Arabia's mineral resources, but Ibn Saud "always preferred to deal with the British, and would welcome the assistance of British firms in exploiting the mineral resources of his country". Yet again, Oliphant chose to slam an open door. He replied that "British firms might hesitate to accept a report not drawn up by a British expert", and expressed doubt "as to the readiness of British firms to sink capital in a little-known country at the present time". A wry note added to the minutes at this point by an unknown hand reads: "Nothing venture, nothing have!" image copyright British Library The language then turned rather undiplomatic. Hamza called the rejection "a great personal grief and disappointment", adding that he had "no alternative but to look elsewhere" - whereupon Oliphant interrupted his guest to "assure him that it was a matter of great regret to His Majesty's Government also". Within 72 hours Faisal and Hamza had departed from Croydon aerodrome on the long journey home. Oliphant was no fool. In a glittering career at the Foreign Office he guided British relations with Persia and Arabia for more than 30 years, rising to a wartime ambassadorship. His stance, though possibly over-cautious and imbued with colonial high-handedness, made perfect sense at the time. So his emotions at the news of 31 May, that American prospectors had struck oil in Bahrain - off the Saudi coast - just two weeks after he had sent the Saudis packing, can only be imagined. Within a year Ibn Saud handed the concession to search for Saudi oil to an American consortium - and in 1938 they discovered the world's largest reserves of crude. Saudi Arabia was "a little-known country" no longer, and the US had begun supplanting British power in the Gulf. image copyright Getty Images image caption Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud (fifth from right) in Paris in March 1939 In the words of British Library historian Mark Hobbs, who has researched the 1932 London meetings: "It was one visit that officials probably wanted to forget." Click here to see the originals of the documents referred to above: UPDATE: In : In Round the Bend last week Matthew Teller told the story of an India Office agent in Gwadar who infuriated his boss, Maj George Murphy, by signing off letters with the words "Love to Patrick". Archivists were puzzled. Who was Patrick? But in the last few days the British Library's Martin Woodward has found a letter that appears to provide the answer image copyright British Library (folio 133 in file IOR/R/15/6/373) will be digitised by the end of the year. has also been updated with reader's stories of sending, or receiving, over-familiar greetings in the workplace - including one involving the actor, David Niven. Patrick was evidently Master Murphy, the Major's son. The newly-found documentwill be digitised by the end of the year Last week's report has also been updated with reader's stories of sending, or receiving, over-familiar greetings in the workplace - including one involving the actor, David Niven. Round the Bend is a series of tales from the days when Britain ruled India and the Gulf, told with documents newly digitised by the British Library. You can explore the archive yourself. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Bubble Double Trouble Lela Star, Keiran Lee & Michael Vegas http://nitroflare.com/view/CD66258804E1CCB/ela_tar.400.mp4 Lela Star is itching to get her husband, Michael Vegas, out of the house to catch his flight so that she can call her lover, Keiran Lee, over for some licentious fun. After Michael leaves, Lela calls Keiran and hops into a bath, where she soaks herself and masturbates as she waits. But shortly after Keiran shows up, Michael returns to grab his forgotten boarding pass. Initially outraged that Lela is cheating with Keiran, Michael keeps an open mind and learns about the true extent of Lela’s kinky fantasies wild urges.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
In episode 191 of the podcast astrologers Kelly Surtees, Austin Coppock, and Chris Brennan present an overview of the major astrological alignments happening in February of 2019. The astrology of February features Venus ingressing into Capricorn and conjoining Saturn and Pluto, Mars conjoining Uranus one last time in Aries before departing for Taurus, and Mercury making the first of three conjunctions with Neptune as it slows down and prepares to station retrograde. The episode opens with an hour-long chat where we touch on a few different topics such as the importance of astrological organizations in the community, tips for electional astrology, the gender disparity in the astrological community, and the confusion surrounding the animal totem for the zodiacal sign Cancer. This episode is available in both audio and video versions, and links to both are below. News and Announcements The Astrology of February Here are some of the major astrological alignments for February: Venus into Capricorn February 3 New Moon in Aquarius February 4 Mercury into Pisces February 10 Mars into Taurus February 14 Sun into Pisces February 18 Full Moon in Virgo February 19 Mercury conjoins Neptune and enters Rx shadow Feb 19-ish. Auspicious Election for February The auspicious election this month that was chosen by Leisa Schaim is set for: There are a few more electional charts that we found for February, which are available in our private subscriber-only podcast on auspicious elections that was released yesterday. Time Stamps The forecast portion of the show begins around 1 hour and 13 minutes into the episode. Watch the Video Version of Our February Forecast Here is the video version of our February astrology forecast episode: – Listen to the Audio Version of Our February Forecast You can either play this episode of the podcast directly from the website or download it as an MP3 to your computer by using the buttons below: Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit Email	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The direct-to-consumer trend in fashion has been one of the most interesting evolutions in e-commerce in the last several years, and today one of the trailblazers in the world of footwear is picking up some money from a list of illustrious backers to bring its concept to the masses. Atoms, makers of sleek sneakers that are minimalist in style — “We will make only one shoe design a year, but we want to make that really well,” said co-founder Sidra Qasim — but not in substance — carefully crafted with comfort and durability in mind, sizes come in quarter increments and you can buy different measurements for each foot if your feet are among the millions that are not exactly the same size — has raised $8.1 million. The company plans to use the funding to invest in further development of its shoes, and to expand its retail and marketing presence. To date, the company has been selling directly to consumers in the U.S. via its website — which at one point had a waiting list of nearly 40,000 people — and the idea will be to fold in other experiences, including selling in physical spaces in the future. This Series A speaks to a number of interesting investors flocking to the company. It is being led by Initialized Capital, the investment firm started by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan (both had first encountered Atoms and its co-founders, Qasim and CEO Waqas Ali — as mentors when the Pakistani husband and wife team were going through Y Combinator with their previous high-end shoe startup, Markhor); with other backers including Kleiner Perkins, Dollar Shave Club CEO Michael Dubin, Acumen founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, TED curator Chris Anderson, the rapper Chamillionaire and previous backers Aatif Awan and Shrug Capital. Investors have come to the company by way of being customers. “The thing that I love about Atoms is that it isn’t just a different look, it’s a different feel,” said Ohanian in a statement. “When I put on a pair for the first time, it was a totally unique experience. Atoms are more comfortable by an order of magnitude than any other shoe I’ve tried, and they quickly became the go-to shoe in my rotation whenever I was stepping out. That wouldn’t mean anything if the shoes didn’t look great. Luckily, that’s not a problem, I wear my Atoms all the time and even my fashion designer wife is a fan.” Even before today’s achievement of closing a Series A, the startup has come a long way on a relative shoestring: with just around $560,000 in seed funding and some of the founders’ own savings, Atoms built a supply chain of companies that would make the materials and shoes that it wanted, and developed a gradual but strong marketing pipeline with influential people in tech, fashion and design. (That success no doubt played a big role in securing the Series A to double down and continue to build the company.) Within the bigger trend of direct-to-consumer retail — where smaller brands are leveraging advances in e-commerce, social media and wider internet usage to build vertically integrated businesses that bypass traditional retailers and bigger e-commerce storefronts to source their customers and sales more directly — there has been a secondary trend disrupting the very products that are being sold by using technology and advances in manufacturing. Third Love is another example in this category: The company has built a huge business selling bras and other undergarments to women by completely rethinking how they are sized, and specifically by focusing on creating as wide a range of sizes as possible. So while companies like Allbirds — which itself is very well capitalised — may look like direct competitors to Atoms, the company currently stands apart from the pack because of its own very distinctive approach to building a mass-market business, but one that aims to make its product as individualised as possible. You might think that approaching shoe manufacturers with the idea of creating smaller-size increments and manufacturing shoes as single items rather than pairs would have been a formidable task, but as it turned out, Atoms seemed to come along at the right place and the right time. “We thought it would be challenging, and it wasn’t unchallenging, but the good thing was that many manufacturers were already starting to think about this,” Ali said. “Think about it, there has been almost no innovation in shoe making in the last 30 or 40 years.” He said they were happy to talk to Atoms because “we were the first and only company looking at shoes this way.” That helped encourage him and Qasim, he added. “We knew we would be able to figure it all out.” Nevertheless, the pair admit that the upfront costs have been very high (they would not say how high), but given the principle of economies of scale, the more shoes that Atoms sells, the better the economics. Currently the shoes sell for $179 a pair, which is not cheap and puts them at the high end of the market, so it will be interesting to see how and if price points evolve as it matures as a business, and competitors big and small begin to catch onto the idea of selling their own footwear at a wider range of sizes. My colleague Josh, who first wrote about Atoms when they launched, is our own in-house tester, and as someone who could have easily moved on to another pair of kicks after he hit publish, he remains a fan: “My Atoms have held up incredibly well from daily wear for 14 months,” he said. “They’re still my comfiest shoes and make Nikes feel uncomfortable when I try them again. They’ve sustained a tiny bit of wear on the front of the foam sole (the toe just below the fabric) while the bottoms have worn down a little, like any shoes. “The mesh fabric can pick up dirt or dust if you take them in the wilderness, and the sole isn’t hard enough that you won’t feel point rocks. But throwing them in the wash or a rub with a brush and they practically look new. The elastic laces are incredibly convenient. “I’ve probably tied them 4 times since first lacing them up. And for a cleaner, more professional look you can tuck the bow of your laces behind the tongue. Their biggest problem is they’re porous and can let water through if you wear them in the rain or puddles. “Overall, I’ve found them to be my best travel shoes because they’re so versatile. I can walk all day in them, but then go to a fancy dinner or nightclub. I can hike or even hit the gym with them if necessary, and they pack quite flat. With the quarter-sizing and different use cases, they make Allbirds look like restrictive outdoor slippers. For adults who still want to wear sneakers, the monochromatic color schemes and brandless, simple styles make Atoms feel as mature and reliable as you can get.” Ali said that among those who buy one pair, some 85% have returned and purchased more, and that’s before it has even gone outside the U.S. Qasim said there has been a lot of interest in other regions, but for now it’s still following its original formula of keeping the organisation and business small and tight, with no plans to expand to further countries for the moment.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The British jihadist suspected of killing US journalist James Foley sparked fears of a terror attack at a music festival when he asked to perform before a huge crowd, it emerged today. Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary - thought to have been behind Mr Foley's gruesome murder in Syria - raised worries among music bosses while trying to get work as a rapper. He reportedly asked music industry figures in Los Angeles to 'get him to America' before turning angry when he was turned down over his links to extremism. Scroll down for video It was feared Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary would target revellers at a U.S. music festival, it was reported today It is said he wanted to perform at the Coachella event in Indio, California and grew angry when turned down Bary - suspected of being the 'Jihadi John' terrorist - performed under the name L Jinny before leaving his parents' £1million home in Maida Vale to fight in Syria. He has since been named as a prime suspect in the killing of Mr Foley, who was shown being killed by an extremist with a London accent in a video broadcast around the world last month. The Sun today reported that American music managers Jeff Crawford and Jennifer Harris-Crawford became concerned about Bary when he asked them to help him perform at the popular U.S. music festival Coachella. After initially expressing interest in his music, they pulled out when they discovered his father, Adel Abdel Bary, was awaiting trial for terror charges. Ms Harris-Crawford told the paper: 'He could be performing and also arranging bombs there. I had this vision of something horrible happening.' The couple said Bary sent them angry messages after they withdrew offers of support and sent them lyrics to a rap which involved references to beheadings, it was reported. Bary reportedly sent U.S. music managers Jeff Crawford and Jennifer Harris-Crawford lyrics about beheadings Bary is suspected of being the so-called 'Jihadi John' militant who killed U.S. journalist James Foley on camera It emerged last week that Bary's 54-year-old father is now locked up in New York awaiting trial for the bombing of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Early photos of Bary posted online show him wearing western clothes such as Adidas hoodies and rapping in a recording studio. But later images show him in military fatigues and a mask wielding a machine gun, an AK-47 and an M16 assault rifle. He is one of three British men who have emerged as potential identities for the masked extremist who killed Mr Foley in the brutal propaganda video which shocked the world last month. The three men, all in their early twenties, are thought to be in the Islamic State capital of Raqqa, Syria. The revelations about his planned trip to the U.S. came the day after David Cameron announced police will be given the power to seize the passports of terror suspects trying to join jihadists fighting in the Middle East. The Prime Minister also unveiled new powers to force jihadis living in the UK to relocate and said airlines will be compelled to hand over passenger lists to increase security.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
On parts of the coast in British Columbia, the long-term presence of native peoples has actually enhanced forest productivity. Photo by Will McInnes/Hakai Institute WATERLOO, Ontario, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- For the last 13,000 years, the native peoples of British Columbia improved the land upon which they depended. The land's trajectory stands in stark contrast to much of the rest of the world, where environmental degradation is the norm. Researchers from the University of Waterloo, University of Victoria and the Hakai Institute combined ecological and archaeological data to measure the long-term impact of the First Nations of coastal British Columbia. The results shows the temperate rain forests around settlement sites are actually more productive than untouched acreage. The trees are taller, wider and greener. "It's incredible that in a time when so much research is showing us the negative legacies people leave behind, here is the opposite story," Andrew Trant, a professor in Waterloo's School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, said in a news release. "These forests are thriving from the relationship with coastal First Nations." RELATED Early Mexican civilization may have bred rabbits and hares "For more than 13,000 years -- 500 generations -- people have been transforming this landscape," Trant continued. "So this area that at first glance seems pristine and wild is actually highly modified and enhanced as a result of human behavior." Trant and his research partners believe the enhanced forest health is at least partially explained by seafood. For millennia, native peoples have retrieved, processed and eaten shellfish and seafood, depositing the remains on the forest floor. Over time, the deep shellfish middens have provided the forest soil with marine-derived nutrients like calcium. Scientists say the combination of fishing and fire altered the forest in other positive ways, like improving soil pH and drainage. RELATED Cave art reveals religious encounters between Europeans and Native Americans Researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. "These results alter the way we think about time and environmental impact," Trant said. "Future research will involve studying more of these human-modified landscapes to understand the extent of these unexpected changes."	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A FedEx driver had a complete meltdown while trying to move a large box with a couch in it. The whole episode was captured on a doorbell camera at the home where the pickup was made. “I don’t understand. People always get this heavy (expletive),” the driver said. In the video, the FedEx employee can be seen tipping over a 144-pound package and pushing it through the snow, while he’s talking on his phone. "Just to let you know, this is a (expletive) pickup,” the driver said. The video shows the driver, still on his phone, trying to lift the box into his truck. “It’s (expletive) pathetic every single (expletive) day. I have to deal with Justin doesn’t put it in the right, the right (expletive) area,” the driver said. “I’ll call you later.” And with that, the package crashes to the ground in the middle of the street. Homeowner Andrea Wendorf was watching her doorbell video from work as everything unfolded. “I was actually in shock. I just sat there the entire time like, ‘wow,’” Wendorf said. “I just wanted to hear what else he was going to say.” The package is big but was within the company’s 150-pound weight limit, according to the FedEx website. In this case, Wendorf was returning a couch from Wayfair that arrived damaged. It was the second one delivered that way. "The frame was broken on it both times,” she said. “So, now we're wondering if it was broken because of the way they treat merchandise." Wendorf says she sent FedEx the video, but never got a response. Now she just wants an apology. "I mean, they're getting paid for it. They're getting paid to deliver large items,” Wendorf said. “Wayfair sells a lot of furniture.” WISN TV reached out to FedEx and got a response. “The behavior depicted in the videos is unacceptable,” the company said. FedEx also promised to “take the appropriate steps to address this matter."	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Image copyright Met Police Image caption Rashan Charles died after being apprehended by police in Dalston A Metropolitan Police officer is being investigated for gross misconduct over the death of Rashan Charles in London, the police watchdog has said. Mr Charles, 20, died after being apprehended by police officers in Dalston, east London, on 22 July . He became ill after trying to swallow an object and was later pronounced dead in hospital. The Met Police said it was vital to establish the truth of how Mr Charles died as quickly as possible. A post-mortem examination found a package containing "a mixture of paracetamol and caffeine" in Mr Charles' throat. Mr Charles' death led to angry clashes in Hackney with protesters hurling fireworks and bottles at riot police, blocking parts of Kingsland Road and setting mattresses alight. On Wednesday the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it had formally notified the police officer that he was being investigated for gross misconduct. Image copyright PA Image caption Violence broke out in Kingsland Road during a protest over the death of Mr Charles IPCC commissioner Cindy Butts said: "The officer may have breached the police standards of professional behaviour regarding the detention and restraint of Rashan as well as how he dealt with Rashan's medical emergency. "Our investigators have analysed the CCTV and body-worn video evidence we gathered and considered the officer's detailed statement as well as statements from other witnesses to the incident. "We have also considered the relevant policies and procedures." She added that while the IPCC investigation was moving into a new phase it did not "necessarily mean misconduct proceedings will follow". Fully co-operating In a statement the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said: "It is absolutely vital that the facts of what took place are thoroughly established as quickly as possible through an independent examination of all the available evidence. "The thoughts of the MPS are with the family of Mr Charles at this incredibly difficult time for them. "All police officers are fully aware that they will be asked to account for their actions. No officer is above the law and they would not wish to be." The Met said the officer and other colleagues were fully co-operating with the IPCC investigation. It added it was now reviewing what restrictions, if any, should be placed on the officer.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A report from Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network on Monday put a little roar into the Lions’ den. Garafolo noted on the network’s morning show that the Detroit Lions have had pre-draft meeting teleconferences with “several” of the top quarterback prospects in the 2020 NFL Draft. Oregon’s Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama are among those mentioned specifically by Garafolo in his report. Herbert and Tagovailoa are both presumptive top 10 overall picks and could be in the mix as high as No. 2 overall to Washington. Detroit picks third and has no immediate need for a quarterback, though the Lions could be in the market to trade the pick to a team desiring one of the two highly-touted QBs. Our take Of course they are interviewing the top QBs. It’s called due diligence and it would be negligent if GM Bob Quinn and his staff failed to take advantage of the opportunity to get to better know future opponents. It doesn’t mean the Lions are drafting Herbert or Tagovailoa, nor does it mean they’re looking to dump Stafford. Even this report is quite careful to note the truth: The Lions aren’t moving on from Matthew Stafford this season, especially given how good he looked before a back injury wiped out the second half of his season. and continues, It’s not unusual for teams drafting early in the first round to do due diligence on every conceivable player who might be available in that position. With the Lions picking so high, that means knowing the quarterbacks. If they surprised and actually pulled the trigger on selecting one, it would cause a cascading effect through the rest of the draft. Don’t read any more into the report than just that.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The next big PUBG tournament has been announced prior to the launch of PUBG Corp.‘s Pro Leagues, and it’s the Global Loot League Season 3 Grand Finals. The international competition will be hosted in Stockholm over December 6-8th, with 16 teams fighting for the lion’s share of $100,000 (£77,525.50). Seven teams from Europe, six from America, and three from CIS will round out the 16-squad roster. These teams will be decided through Season 3 of the online GLL league. The final week for Americas starts on October 31st, whereas both CIS and Europe wrap up on November 1st. Each of the three days of action will have five matches, with a total of eight matches on Erangel and seven on Miramar. The point system used during the tournament will that be used during the GLL Alpha Division – a prospective universal point system was created in September, with Auzom, GLL, Challengermode, and ESL all adopting it so far. The grand finals for the second season of Global Loot League took place on August 10-12th, with relatively unknown Russian side M19 claiming first place and $40,000 (£31,009.60). Earlier this month, PUBG Corp. announced the first two Pro Leagues that will be incorporated into its competitive ecosystem starting in 2019. StarLadder will operate the PUBG Europe League, whereas South Korean broadcast OGN will be establishing itself in North America with the National PUBG League. Esports Insider says: Global Loot League has produced good online and offline competitions for PUBG so far, and Season 3 sounds as if it will be much of the same. There are no drastic changes from Season 2 – including the amount of teams and the prize pool – so competitors and fans know what to expect.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The Best Biohacking Guide For Beginners: 15+ Easy Biohacks I’m sure you’ve come across the term ‘biohacking’ but what REALLY is biohacking? In this biohacking guide I’m going to show you how you can hack your body and mind, and achieve things you thought were only possible in films like Lucy or Limitless. Actually, Limitless is a good example of the type of performance and results you can realistically achieve with biohacking, IF you’re patient and do it right. I’m not saying everyone’s going to be able to become a millionaire and take over the world just by wearing special glasses at night, but I am saying anything is possible. I wrote a very detailed post about how you can become Limitless like the guy from the film, but you’ll find many of the things I mention there in THIS article you’re reading now. That being said, you should read it if you have time, it’s very interesting and includes some things I don’t mention here. Biohacking is a way of optimising your mind, body and life to get the best results. It’s a series of clever habits, effective routines, habits, and powerful techniques that you can use to master your life. But it’s also often very simple and easy to practice biohacking. It involves doing things like: Making sure you get enough sunlight so your body can produce the hormones needed to make you feel awake and alert Avoiding stimulants that overwhelm your brain and force it to shut down ‘dopamine receptor sites’, and instead taking healthy, natural supplements to give your brain the FUEL it needs Avoiding negative energy, content, media and people, so that the negative energy doesn’t rub off on you Getting outside and breathing fresh air, while exposing your skin to healthy sunlight And it can go all the way up to advanced biohacking ideas like using light energy to heal your body, stem cells to optimise your ageing process, and advanced sleep tracking. Sounds exciting, right? There’s all sorts of clever techy things you can do to biohack yourself, but this beginners biohacking guide focuses on the simple, straightforward things. The things everyone can easily implement, and see RESULTS from without having to spend loads of money. There’s a few people who’ve been in the news that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on biohacking. This is for the most part, not needed. What is biohacking? Biohacking can be defined as optimising your body, mind and life using a few clever bits of technology, through your diet, or through powerful habits, routines and exercises. It describes anything you do to improve your life and boy, or make it more efficient and effective. It’s often easy, cheap and fun! Most people think of cutting open your finger tips to inject magnets when they hear the term biohacking, but that’s far from the truth. In fact there are many easy, safe, legal and fun things you can do, which we’ll cover now: Here’s a little motivational biohacking video I created by the way: 20 simple biohacks for beginners (biohacking examples) Now please bare in mind that this biohacking guide is for beginners, and although this stuff might seem strange, it’s still entry level. There are far more advanced, difficult, or expensive things you can do, but they’ll be covered in future articles. If you’re interested in this type of content, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the notification bell, so you get notified about the new biohacking videos. This article just goes over some basic and easy to start biohacks, that won’t cost you much money. In fact most of them are free. Then at the bottom of the post, we’ll explore some other questions you might have like WHY biohack yourself, the benefits and dangers, and more. 1: Blue light avoidance When you walk around during the day, the sunlight and natural light enters your eyes, and specifically the BLUE spectrum of that light causes your body to produce SEROTONIN. This hormone makes you feel awake and alert during the day. Makes sense, right? The body is designed to become more active and energetic during the day time, and the hormone serotonin is part of how it does that. The problem starts when the sun goes DOWN. In nature, the sun would go down and your body would detect the lack of light, STOP producing serotonin, and instead start producing MELATONIN which makes you feel sleepy. But by keeping our body in a state of being ‘awake’ through phone screens, TVs, laptop screens, artificial lights etc, we STOP our bodies producing melatonin and KEEP it producing serotonin. This artificial light activity makes falling asleep MUCH harder than it needs to be. In fact, melatonin is such a powerful sleep aid that they literally sell it as a sleep aid in most chemists. But your body produces it naturally, if you allow it to. So what you need to do, is FILTER or avoid BLUE LIGHT once the sun has gone down. Here’s how you can do that: Use a computer program called Fl.ux which automatically turns off blue light slowly after a certain time giving your screen an orange glow (I think it looks cool!) which automatically turns off blue light slowly after a certain time giving your screen an orange glow (I think it looks cool!) Enable ‘night shift mode’ on your Iphone after 8PM to simulate sunset and reduce blue light from your phone screen after 8PM to simulate sunset and reduce blue light from your phone screen Turn off or dim lights in the evenings and if possible, use a red light like a salt lamp or red LED lamp instead of the normal bright blue lightbulbs and if possible, use a red light like a salt lamp or red LED lamp instead of the normal bright blue lightbulbs Wear blue light blockers (This is the best pair I’ve found and they’re super cheap): Really comfortable glasses that block and filter out blue light. This is my preferred and probably the easiest option, and they really do work! 2: Clean up your diet I’m not going to lecture about the importance of eating a plant based diet, but it really does make a difference. Eating a vegan diet is the healthiest according to studies, most notably the China Study [1] but many others as well. In fact I have a very detailed post explaining the many benefits of the vegan diet and how it can literally reverse and help avoid almost all types of disease and illness. I’ve personally been 95% vegan for over two years, and 100% vegetarian for longer. At the very least, try and follow these tips and guidelines to biohack your diet: Eat fresh vegetables with every meal, ideally at least half of your plate should be covered with vegetables with every meal, ideally at least half of your plate should be covered with vegetables Drink plenty of water every day , but not so much during meal times (it dilutes your enzymes, making digestion harder) , but not so much during meal times (it dilutes your enzymes, making digestion harder) Avoid or reduce meat and dairy consumption and if possible, just go vegan or plant based and if possible, just go vegan or plant based Avoid or reduce sugar, salt, alcohol and tobacco intake (They’re the worst 4 things, but you must have known that) intake (They’re the worst 4 things, but you must have known that) Get plenty of vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants in your diet (I like to make one giant smoothie every day including powders, vitamins, creatine, hemp protein powder and much more, it’s the easiest way of getting it all in) Most of that I’m sure comes as no surprise, but lots of people have an incredibly unhealthy diet, rich in poisons, junk, and dangerous ingredients like E-numbers, additives and much more. Try and clean it up, if you want some more guidance: Read my book about going vegan and the superpowers it can give you (or read my vegan baking book, or vegan brainpower smoothies book!) (or read my vegan baking book, or vegan brainpower smoothies book!) Think about going plant based or doing a 30 day experiment where you eat plant based for 30 days or doing a 30 day experiment where you eat plant based for 30 days Challenge yourself to drink 10 glasses of water a day! When choosing foods to eat, stop and think ‘is this ADDING to my health or TAKING AWAY from it’ 3: Sense of purpose Purpose and mission is HUGELY important, but most people miss the point here. Ask 10 people you know what their purpose in life is, and most of the time you’ll get a blank stare in response. Our society doesn’t encourage thinking about ‘purpose’ too much. We’re far too focused on practicality and realism. We’re too focused on ‘what job will be easiest for you to get, that might pay your bills’. But that misses the point and keeps us stuck in mediocrity. I mean take a moment right now to ask yourself WHY you’re on this planet. What’s the point of you being here? It sure as hell isn’t to pay bills, serve people coffee and then die. Unless you REALLY love serving coffee, and you’re really great at it. For most people, there’s a bigger purpose that needs to be discovered. It’s been shown that a sense of purpose makes you feel BETTER, long term. It helps you to experience joy, not just pleasure. Pleasure you can get from porn, pizza or drinking. JOY comes from hard work over time on your purpose. A sense of knowing that you’ve done something of VALUE and helped the world in some way. Pleasure is all about you and your own needs and wants. Purpose means more, feels better, and helps the planet more. Another way of thinking about it is purpose is what you’re changing about the world, ideally in a positive way. In 1000 years, NOBODY is going to remember you because you worked in a secure job and managed to pay your bills on time. No one gives a fuck, but they WILL remember you if you changed the world, and tried to make a difference. 4: Sleep tracking There are now many ways of tracking your sleep and seeing in depth how well and how long you slept for. Sleep is very important, in fact I’d say sleep is the most important biohack of all. If you get sleep right, everything else falls into place. This is the reason so many CEOs or massive companies protect their sleep like it’s a vault full of gold bars. They’ll prioritise sleeping early, and getting high quality sleep every night. Because they know that if you sleep right, you’ll perform right the next day. The first step to take here is to actually TRACK your sleep, so you can see how long you’re really sleeping for, and how high QUALITY that sleep is. Here’s the most effective ways of tracking your sleep: Oura ring : A small ring that tracks your sleep more accurately than most other smart devices : A small ring that tracks your sleep more accurately than most other smart devices Fitbit : A very well known brand that can track your sleep effectively and show you when your deep sleep happened and what disturbances you had during the night : A very well known brand that can track your sleep effectively and show you when your deep sleep happened and what disturbances you had during the night The fitness tracker I use: A much cheaper option than the other two, and it still shows you how long you slept for, how much DEEP sleep you had, and gives you reminders with a vibration during the day to move when it detects you’re not moving! It also counts your steps and a bunch of other stuff too 5: Cold showers Cold water makes most people recoil in fear, but it’s actually really good for you. Cold water is FAR better for you than warm water, for a number of reasons. Firstly, let’s start with why warm water is bad. Most water in the US and Europe contains flouride and heavy metals which when HEATED can be in the steam that you inhale, directly entering your body. Also the warm water opens up your pores so you absorb more of the water with the dangerous ingredients in. Okay so warm is bad. It also weakens your cold resistance and lowers your immune system. COLD WATER however, does the following: Improves blood flow Improves circulation and vascular strength Improves mood and energy (Forces your body to release endorphins and make you feel happy) Forces deep breathing and large, deep and slow breathes (All of us usually don’t breathe deeply enough) Can help you recover faster from injury or exercise (exercise IS injury in a small way) Boosts your testosterone I found it gives more motivation and willpower (by doing something that’s uncomfortable at first, it forces your willpower to strengthen) It’s not hard to start having cold showers either, to start with just read my guide on having cold showers, or when you’re ready to take this biohack to the next level, read my post about ice baths. 6: Clean water Water is essential to your health, we know that. But did you know that most bottled water contains many heavy metals, which can be revealed when you pass even a weak electrical current through the water? Also, even tap water contains flouride and other poisons. Without going into detail on why flouride is bad, let’s just agree that filtering your water is probably a good idea. The best options you have for filtering your water are: A general jug filter : This is the best option for most people. It’s going to filter most impurities from the water, it’s cheap, and it’s easy to use and just fits in your fridge, but it CAN’T remove all flouride (still much better than nothing) : This is the best option for most people. It’s going to filter most impurities from the water, it’s cheap, and it’s easy to use and just fits in your fridge, but it CAN’T remove all flouride (still much better than nothing) A Berkley filter: This is a great option, especially if you’re traveling around. You can enjoy water that’s filtered of 99.99% of anything harmful, and the filter lasts 6000 gallons. Don’t assume that just because you live in the USA your tap water is safe. Flouride is a poison, and it’s crazy that more people don’t know this. Look it up if you don’t believe me. 7: Grounding and antioxidants (time in nature) This one might make a few of you raise an eyebrow. I’m going to say it anyway because there’s more and more science emerging around this, and we’re just starting to understand what ancient cultures and civilisations have understood for thousands of years. In your body, as a byproduct of metabolising food, you produce what’s called ‘free radicals’. These are basically atoms that are scattered into one electron. Electrons in chemistry, like to come as PAIRS. So because metabolism creates the free radicals (read; single crazy electrons without a partner) the free radicals seek out other electrons and bond with them. This causes mutation and cellular chaos, which results in disease. In fact it’s been said that the ONLY disease in the world, is chaos at a cellular level. Free radicals can cause all sorts of bad things like Cancer and other diseases if left unchecked. BUT it’s not all bad news! The earths surface has a negative electrical charge. So by contacting the earth with your bare feet, you discharge the positive electrons running around your body looking for another electron, before they can bond with random electrons and cause disease. In nature and history, we’ve done this. We historically walked barefoot and grounded all day long, as well as swam in natural water pools and waterfalls. We also often slept under the stars and were in constant contact with Mother Earth. But along the way we’ve moved indoors and started wearing shoes everywhere. In fact if you’re interested in diving deeper into the conspiracy that is modern shoes, read my book ‘Free Your Feet’ but I warn you, it’s a rabbit hole. Another powerful way of getting rid of free radicals, and helping your health overall is to consume high levels of ANTI-oxidants. These are naturally occurring substances that help mop up and remove the free radicals caused by metabolism. It’s been shown in a study [2] that “Antioxidants act as radical scavenger, hydrogen donor, electron donor, peroxide decomposer, singlet oxygen quencher, enzyme inhibitor, synergist, and metal-chelating agents.” Foods that are high in natural antioxidants are labelled these days as ‘superfoods’ but really, they’re just the foods we should be eating ANYWAY. The foods we should be having as part of our natural, normal diet. To sum up: Some antioxidants are harmed when you heat them or cook them , so you need to quickly research each food and make some notes on them , so you need to quickly research each food and make some notes on them An easy way of adding antioxidants to your diet is to sprinkle Tumeric on your food while it’s cooking! on your food while it’s cooking! Antioxidants are natural compounds that mop up and help remove those crazy free radicals from your body before they do any harm from your body before they do any harm Physically walking with bare feet on the grass helps discharge those electrons into the earth 8: Movement reminders We are designed to move. Humans are not meant to be sitting down long periods of time per day, and not moving. There are all sorts of problems that can develop as a result of just not moving around. But our modern lives tend to be fairly sedentary and involve just sitting around at a desk, or in armchairs in the evenings. This is why it’s essential to make sure you break up this cycle. A great way of doing that is to set reminders on your phone to go off every half an hour and remind you to get up, stretch and move around. The way I like to do it, is to wear a fitness tracker like this one which vibrates once every half an hour, reminding me to get up and move. I combine this with breathing deeply as well, another thing that most people are NOT doing often enough. Here are some tips and reminders: If you’re looking at a screen all day, give your eyes a rest every 10 minutes, for 10 seconds, by looking at something 10 metres or more away Every 30 minutes, stand up, stretch and walk around for 30 seconds Every 30 minutes do 30 seconds of deep belly breathing 9: Gratitude It’s been said that it’s impossible to feel sad, angry or depressed when you’re thinking about the things you’re GRATEFUL for. This is actually not something most people practice for some reason. It makes sense when you think about it, that when you’re feeling grateful, you feel happier, right? What could be more high energy and empowering than being and feeling grateful for something you’ve already got? You don’t need to wish or hope for the future, or think about the past. You can just feel grateful for what you have NOW. Try and write down 3 things you’re grateful for, every single morning in a little journal. This can be the same 3 things if you can’t think of any others but try and vary it every morning so you’re writing new things. It might be something as small as what you had for breakfast, or you might suddenly feel grateful and aware of the fact that you actually have legs and can walk around! Whatever it is you’re feeling grateful for just write it down in a journal. 10: Earn more money! Money in this world, is fairly useful. It’s a way of paying for things and traveling to different places, and the system has been setup to ensure that we need money to do 99% of what we want to do. That doesn’t mean it’s the most important thing, just means that it’s needed for most things. Now until the system changes to be a world where money isn’t required, you’ll be generally happier if you have a bit more money. In fact it’s been shown that wealth can buy happiness or at least give you the CHOICE to make healthier choices, and spend your money on THINGS that make you happier. This might mean being able to afford to go to expensive personal development seminars, buy effective coaching programs or whatever else. It also means you can afford to buy organic, healthy food which tends to be fairly expensive, compared to the cheap rubbish that they call ‘fast food’. So making more money is useful, and will help you realise your other goals. when this website first started, my focus was on personal development and making money. Now it’s more open minded and focused on spirituality also, but I used to write a lot about making money and investing. For now, and just for the average beginner trying to make more money I’d suggest doing the following: Try and practice saving and investing as much as you can from what you earn, before you pay bills or taxes with that money from what you earn, before you pay bills or taxes with that money If you’re struggling, focus on earning more, not spending less . This is the fastest way to get wealthy, and you can’ easily SAVE your way to wealth. Increasing your income is by far the fastest way to solve your problem . This is the fastest way to get wealthy, and you can’ easily SAVE your way to wealth. Increasing your income is by far the fastest way to solve your problem Look at the things you’re paying for every month like Netflix, phone bills etc and see which ones you can cancel, reduce or change. Most of us are paying for things every month that we don’t need or use, that we could easily live without like Netflix, phone bills etc and see which ones you can cancel, reduce or change. Most of us are paying for things every month that we don’t need or use, that we could easily live without Read my post about making money doing what you love, and learn how to turn a passion or knowledge into a digital product, and make money from it (The Nomad Bootcamp also teaches this) 11: Intermittent fasting Intermittent fasting isn’t as scary or difficult as it sounds, but it does have a big impact on how you feel, and how you perform. Basically, it just means deciding to eat ONLY inside a set eating ‘window’ or block of time during every 24 hour day. For me, this looks like this: I ONLY eat between the hours of 12PM and 8PM on weekdays On weekends, I eat whenever I want and usually just start the day with a smoothie or something This means no night time snacking, and no breakfasts. It also means however, that I never go to bed hungry. So it’s actually not that bad, it just means I skip breakfast on weekdays, but the benefits this gives me are HUGE. Here are some main benefits: Increased energy and mental clarity Better digestion and muscle recovery Improved sleep and reduced stress Much less inflammation, and less oxidative stress Much lower risk of heart diseases Can even help prevent cancer Can extend your lifespan (Yeah) Increased human growth hormone (Great for muscle building if you’re also exercising) Insulin levels drop massively (Causing you to burn fat) In the fasted state, your body repairs and grows muscle, drops your insulin levels and burns fat Reduced risk of type 2 diabetes Pretty incredible, and there are more too, but it’s such a simple change that I don’t really need to SELL it beyond that. It’s a no brainer. Just miss breakfast, and get that list of benefits! Think about this: The body is only ever in a FASTED or a FED state. By putting your body into a fasted state every 24 hours, you force yourself to produce more HGH (human growth hormone), which supercharges muscle growth, energy, reverses ageing, and far more. It also forces your body to better utilise the calories you eat, burn more fat, and think and perform faster/better. Pretty insane hack considering all you’re doing is changing when you eat. The idea that you need breakfast to begin your day, is largely a myth. It’s generated by a company that sells breakfast cereals (Convenient, right?). Give it a try, try eating only between 12PM and 8PM for a week, and see how you feel! I tried it and instantly felt better. And that’s another thing, with most of these hacks, at first I didn’t believe they’d work, and I tried them PURELY because other people had been doing them and signing their praises. I always say to myself that if I read something like this, IF, cold showers, nootropics whatever it is, that I’ll TRY it for 30 days and see how I feel. If I don’t notice a benefit, I stop. If I DO notice a benefit, the habit stays with me. And then for the ones that I notice a benefit, I research them more and go deeper into them. This might include doing them more often, or investing more money into them (Nootropics, for example). 12: Getting into flow state Flow state can be described as that feeling of being so lost in the work you’re doing, that you forget about the flow of time. The work just happens by itself, and it’s like you’re watching your fingers typing, or your body lifting weights. It’s like being ABOVE your mind, and connected with your body and soul. It’s a magical feeling that most people never experience. In order to reach flow state there are various triggers and things you can do to induce the state. Mostly it comes down to: Working on something you love Removing all distractions from the room and focusing on the task Synching up your left and right brain (Using something like Holosync) Optimising brain chemistry (I like using Mind Lab Pro for this) There are more, but you should read my article about it if you want to learn more Flow state is a great biohack, because it’s basically the HIGHER performing version of your brain. Your brain in flow state makes your brain ‘normally’ look like a kindergarten. 13: Binaural beats (brainwave optimisation) Your brain operates on different frequencies throughout the day and night, depending on what you’re doing. These can also be described as ‘brainwave states’. Here are the main brainwave states and what they’re used for: Beta (12-30HZ) : This is the state your brain is in most of the time during the day. It’s linked with cognitive reasoning and being ‘aware’ : This is the state your brain is in most of the time during the day. It’s linked with cognitive reasoning and being ‘aware’ Alpha (7.5-12HZ): This is the state where you’re more focused, alert and able to be creative and concentrate on things. This state is often reached by light meditation, or when you enter the flow state and focus properly. This is the state where you’re more focused, alert and able to be creative and concentrate on things. This state is often reached by light meditation, or when you enter the flow state and focus properly. Theta (4-7.5HZ): This is the brainwave state you’re in when you’re in deep meditation, sleeping, and lucid dreaming. This state is not great for focus but can be, depending on the task you’re performing. This state is when your subconscious mind is the most open to new ideas (Why it’s important to repeat your affirmations first thing in the morning after sleep because you’re still in Theta stage) This is the brainwave state you’re in when you’re in deep meditation, sleeping, and lucid dreaming. This state is not great for focus but can be, depending on the task you’re performing. This state is when your subconscious mind is the most open to new ideas (Why it’s important to repeat your affirmations first thing in the morning after sleep because you’re still in Theta stage) Delta (0.5-4HZ): This is the state present in deep sleep (dreamless) and also really deep meditation. It normally takes at least half an hour to reach this state of brainwaves. It’s very important for regeneration and health and often you enter this stage during deep sleep This is the state present in deep sleep (dreamless) and also really deep meditation. It normally takes at least half an hour to reach this state of brainwaves. It’s very important for regeneration and health and often you enter this stage during deep sleep Gamma (30-100HZ): Little is known about this fairly new brainwave state, other than it’s the highest brainwave state and usually we experience this either when we’re awake or SOMETIMES when we’re lucid dreaming. But ignoring the nonsense here, what you’re probably most interested in is tracking your SLEEP to make sure you’re entering Delta at least once a night (deep sleep) and moving from Beta to Alpha during the day, when you need to focus on something. The most useful tools for doing this are: An EEG tracker for your brain like Muse: This is a device that lets you see which brainwave states you’re in at any time during the day This is a device that lets you see which brainwave states you’re in at any time during the day Binaural beats like these : Special soundwaves that gently encourage your brain to shift into your desired brainwave frequency state : Special soundwaves that gently encourage your brain to shift into your desired brainwave frequency state Meditate every morning for at least 15 minutes: This moves you into Alpha and eventually Theta state, and then after this meditation you should focus on affirmations (telling yourself things that you WANT to be true about yourself) 14: Sauna (Infared light therapy) Light (and heat) has a profound impact on the body. Not just the light we can see (sunlight) but also the light we can’t see like Infared. Infared light can be very beneficial for our bodies, and specifically ‘Near infared light’. A study [3] has shown that the effects of near infared light can be seen in most people. You can for example, reduce inflammation and speed recovery with the right type of infared treatment. Near infared is called near because it’s the nearest to visible light waves that we can access. We naturally experience near infared light at dusk and dawn, which is when there’s the greatest change in electromagnetic activity caused by the sun rising and setting. Far infared light tends to be a little more harmful and produces EMFS (electromagnetic fields) which can be harmful. Near infared produces far less EMF activity, and makes the body sweat more which releases toxins. For most of us though, it has general benefits as well. The best way of using this type of light therapy is to get a small infared pad that you can use on your body in your own home. ‘NEAR infared light’ is better for muscle and thermal applications like aiding recovery. There are other benefits of saunas as well, for example sweating. By sweating, you eliminate toxins and waste from your body, and provided you have a good long shower after sweating, they stay out! It’s worth noting that the best and most effective FIR devices burn cold, meaning they shouldn’t feel warm when you use them. Here are the best infared devices: Near infared heating pad : Good for recovering muscles and aiding injury recovery : Good for recovering muscles and aiding injury recovery Far Infared pad : Good for paid relief, whole body benefits and charging up the body : Good for paid relief, whole body benefits and charging up the body Whole body infared sauna: A tiny sauna that you can seal your whole body into and use at home! I’d get this if I had a bigger house 15: Nootropics Nootropics are ‘smart drugs’ which can massively increase cognitive activity in your brain, and make your brain work faster, better, and for longer. I’ve personally experimented for a long time with nootropics and found that Mind Lab Pro (that link takes you to their website in a new tab so you can read reviews and check the ingredients!) is the best option for most people. It gives your brain a powerful and very noticeable boost in performance, for many hours. Mind Lab Pro feels like your brain is on rocket fuel, especially when you combine this with something like Optineuro which has the caffeine content as well, but from naturally derived sources. The difference that a good nootropic can make is huge. I was personally skeptical but I tried it out like most of the biohacks in this guide, and found that it was really effective. So it stayed and I use it every week day now. I’d suggest reading my guide on nootropics but in general, just make sure to cycle it on and off. I like to take them on week days and then have weekends off, as this means I always have the cognitive boost when I need it when I’m working during the week. To summarise: Nootropics are natural ‘brain boosters’ that can give your brain an edge I’ve tried out dozens of nootropics and found Mind Lab Pro to be the most effective Cycle them on and off so your brain doesn’t adapt to them and make them less effective Ideally take a good multivitamin as well, every morning I found it’s better to take nootropics just after a small meal at lunch time 16: Meditation practice Meditation is a critical key to feeling more at peace in your life, and has multiple benefits. These benefits have been proven by numerous studies, and it’s amazing they don’t teach this in schools yet. Meditation simply means to separate your awareness from your left brain ‘thinking mind’ or chatter. This chatter is constantly going on in your head and might be saying things in your head right now like: This articles quite long, maybe I’ll click onto another one I knew this already, I’ll skip and read something else now I think I wonder what I’ll make for dinner later This internal mind chatter is going on all the time, and there’s not much you can do about it, but it can be turned off temporarily in the mornings. The best way of doing this is to just set a timer on your phone to go off after 10 minutes, and then focus on your breathing. Just breathe slowly in and out for ten minutes. There are several apps you can get that help you with this, but they’re not needed IMO. You can just set a timer, focus on your breath and get a lot of benefits from that. I actually wrote a book about meditation for beginners which you can get on Amazon, it’s very cheap (sometimes free) and gives you a deep level of insight into meditation and why it’s so powerful. 17: Standing desk Like I said previously, we’re not meant to be sitting down all day. It’s bad for our spine and alignment, and also our breathing. You can get a standing desk that can be risen up to let you work while standing. Importantly though, you should get a desk that can SWITCH between being a sitting and a standing desk. We’re not meant to sit all day, but we’re not meant to stand all day either as that can also cause problems [4]. Make sure you can switch between the two modes of working easily. The best way of doing this is working for about the same time both sitting and standing [5], during the day. This is optimal and lets your body get all it needs, without stressing it one way or the other. Here are the best standing desks I’ve found online but there are plenty of options to choose from: Hand crank standing desk : Manually crank the desk up or down. A great good looking option that isn’t expensive at all, good way to get started with standing desks : Manually crank the desk up or down. A great good looking option that isn’t expensive at all, good way to get started with standing desks Treadmill desk : This one’s probably the best for your health but it can’t turn into a SITTING desk. It lets you walk while you work! Probably a bit too big for most peoples offices though : This one’s probably the best for your health but it can’t turn into a SITTING desk. It lets you walk while you work! Probably a bit too big for most peoples offices though A higher quality convertible desk: Better looking desk that can be sitting or standing Dangers of biohacking Although biohacking sounds incredible, there are some things to consider and be aware of. It’s nt all sunshine and rainbows. Here are the main dangers or risks of biohacking: You might become obsessed, specially if you have an obsessive personality, and you might start tracking EVERYTHING People might think you’re over the top, or weird if you start biohacking and wanting to improve yourself Some things haven’t had that much research and it’s difficult to form a well researched opinion about some things Biohacking can be expensive if you want to get involved with the technology based side of it like the trackers, monitors and devices Benefits of biohacking The main benefits of biohacking can be experienced by anyone and everyone. Biohacking just means improving your body or mind and the way you do things. It doesn’t HAVE to mean buying expensive pills, devices or software. It’s not possible for me to list the benefits of biohacking because it really depends on WHICH biohack you’re doing. For example if you start intermittent fasting, you’ll experience over a dozen benefits just from that ONE biohack. But the benefits of wanting to biohack yourself include: Upgrading your body, mind or both Becoming faster, better, stronger and more effective Tracking your health and being able to see clearly where you need to put in more work Making yourself more effective so you’re better able to do the things you love, and extend your life What is grinding biohacking? Grinding refers to physically modifying your body, and injecting or implanting things into your flesh and bones. This is an area of biohacking I’m not interested in for a number of reasons: The implants often go wrong, or aren’t made properly and result in injury or complications The implants that go right often go out of date or get replaced and upgraded very soon by newer models, rendering your old version pointless There’s no real benefit yet and the features of these biohacks are so pointless that it’s not worth the procedure The implant procedures for things like a fingertip magnet or an RFID chip just aren’t worth the pain and difficult of doing it Taking biohacking further If you’re interested in learning more about biohacking, I regularly send out free tips and tricks to my email list which you can join here. Also make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel where I talk more about it. References used	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
I may never beat Rise of the Triad, Interceptor Entertainment's new reboot of 3D Realms/Apogee’s classic 1994 shooter. On the other hand, I don’t think it really matters. For the last two hours I've been fruitlessly tossing rockets, missiles, and all other sorts of explosive objects at a twelve-foot-tall robot named NME, only to have him mercilessly murder me at the last minute. I feverishly jump back into it again, knowing I'll most likely die at the exact same point. The game seems to look at the way I’ve let my circle-strafing skills atrophy over the last decade and sneer. I'm not being dramatic—it actually mocks me. “Stick to a gamepad,” the voiceover taunts and I hang my head, all too aware of how piercing and knowing the insult is. Rise of the Triad is the sort of unabashedly over-the-top action game where if everything isn't on fire, you're probably doing something wrong. No, I'll probably never beat Rise of the Triad, but that's beside the point. Rise of the Triad revels in being nigh-unbeatable, and I’m fine with it—even if I have no real desire to develop the skill required to win. In that sense, the game perfectly recaptures the blend of skill and masochism needed to master the twitch-shooter genre. This is not a case of a reboot adapting to modern design tropes. Rise of the Triad takes modern game design, throws it in the garbage, lights it on fire, shoots it with a rocket launcher, and then does whatever it wants instead. And it’s fantastic. Real American hero Rise of the Triad is a throwback to a time when games were, more often than not, simply games. A time when people who wanted games that aspired to be “art” were the weird ones. Oddly, by adhering to this singular vision of classic gaming Rise of the Triad becomes more a work of art than many contemporary games with loftier ambitions. That is, if you don’t mind painting with blood and kerosene. Rise of the Triad is an unapolegetically bombastic game. Everyone explodes. Practically everything explodes. You collect giant coins with Ankh symbols emblazoned on both sides, solely to score more points. You fight the Nazis—except they’re called Triads! Yes just like the 1994 original, a guy in a Nazi uniform by any other name is still a Nazi: a remnant of the franchise’s origins as an expansion pack for Wolfenstein 3D. If you need dumb bad guys for a self-consciously dumb action game, you can't do much better than dumb Naz—sorry, "Triads." This is a game for people who remember Wolfenstein 3D, who flip dual middle fingers at the thought of tactical shooters, who cackle at the mere thought of controversy surrounding violence in games, who consider regenerating health a ruinous gimmick, and who lament that “rocket jump” has slipped from our cultural lexicon. Does that demographic even exist? Hell if I know. There’s a good chance every person who fits that mold worked on this game. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you understand upfront: Rise of the Triad is pure insanity, a game that’s dead serious about not being taken seriously at all. This is a reboot of the game that pioneered ludicrous gibs. You should know what you're in for. Without rhyme or reason You want story? Here’s your story: strap into the boots of one of the six members of H.U.N.T. (High-risk United Nations Task-force), an elite cabal of soldiers trying to infiltrate the Triad's island compound and take down those evildoers. Wait, you want more story? Then you’ve come to the wrong game. This is about as much story as you'll see the whole game. Hey, remember how the last thirty minutes or so of Commando is just Arnold Schwarzenegger running around an island paradise/terrorist compound murdering people? Oh yeah, and remember how he kills a guy by using a saw blade as a Frisbee? Rise of the Triad is basically that sequence made into a game. When I played Fallout 3 I fired a mini-nuke one time just to watch it explode, laughed, and then reloaded so I could save all my nuke ammo in case I needed it for a boss later. I never did. When all you have is a rocket launcher, everything looks like a shack full of explosives. In Rise of the Triad, there is a new rocket launcher (or some variant) every five feet. There are racks of rocket launchers. Sometimes there are rocket launchers just tossed in the corner, like a terrorist came home from work that day, stripped off his explosives, and flung them aside, shouting, “Honey! I’m hoooome!” If, at any given moment, you don’t have a rocket launcher in hand you are probably playing Rise of the Triad wrong. Unless, of course, you’re using the baseball bat with eyes embedded in it that lobs exploding baseballs, or the wizard staff that shoots lightning. Or you’ve collected the “God Mode” pickup and can vaporize enemies with your hand. Or you've turned into a dog with a supersonic bark attack. I'm serious. It's a dog-eat-dog world. Or dog-eat-Triad. Or dog-eat-rocket. You are bad at this game After picking one of five characters, all of which move at superhuman speeds between “blisteringly fast” and “I-might-throw-up,” you’ll begin sprinting through labyrinthine terrorist compounds full of ridiculous traps, blowing up enemies and generally causing a ruckus. At the end of each level you’re scored on how many enemies you killed, how many coins you collected, how long you spent in the level, your remaining health, and how many secrets you discovered. This game does not hold your hand. Eschewing the last ten years of first-person shooter design, your character will not regenerate health like a gun-toting Wolverine knockoff. Instead you’re forced to scramble after bowls of “Monk Meal” and “Priest Porridge” like some sort of ravenous rector, gaining back a pitiful amount of your health with each bowl. Sometimes, these bowls of food light on fire; dumping that fiery mess down your gullet actually restores more health. No logical explanation is given, or expected. You can set porridge on fire with your arsenal to make it restore more health. No matter how gluttonous you are, you will die often. And, if you're anything like me, you will love it. Then hate it. Then probably love it again. Then give up, slam your hand into your desk, vow you’re quitting forever, only to come back an hour later convinced you’ll do better this time. “You probably won’t do better,” the game says, laughing at you. H.U.N.T. together The campaign is paced excellently and I spent most of my time there, but I expect multiplayer will be the main draw for a lot of people. After all, as the loading screens remind me, the original Rise of the Triad was the first competitive shooter to feature Capture the Flag. Multiplayer is part of this game's legacy I’m happy to report that multiplayer is just as, if not more, chaotic than the campaign. The multiplayer maps are beautiful and well-designed, though there aren't many to choose from. If you’ve ever played older Unreal Tournament or Quake you’ll immediately feel at home. I hope that’s pretty much all I have to say for you to know whether or not this sounds appealing, as I’m absolutely terrible at multiplayer Rise of the Triad. All the hallmarks of single-player make it in, from high-flying jump pads to a myriad of rocket launchers and insane powerups. Arenas are well-crafted and seem balanced, though more map selection would be welcome—there are only a handful as of release. Bottom line What the new and improved Rise of the Triad really captures is…well, Rise of the Triad. All of the stuff I mentioned above? Those were key aspects of the original game. The items, the enemies, the powerups, the secret rooms—all faithfully adapted from their 1994 counterparts. The humor remains intact—shamelessly '90s-esque, but not painfully forced the way Duke Nukem Forever was. If you don’t like the soundtrack, well, you're crazy, but you can dig into the options menu and switch to the classic 1994 version. Even the levels are based off the originals. Everything—from the jump pads to the rocket launcher—are shameless tributes to the original Rise of the Triad. Interceptor has spoken in the past about their passion for the original Rise of the Triad, and it shows. This game was obviously made with a ton of love and care, and given the trials the development team overcame to get the finished product out the door it’s almost a miracle that Rise of the Triad exists at all—some of these events are even chronicled in the game’s loading screens, i.e. four computers were lost during development. I’m glad the game came out. Interceptor knew exactly what game they were making with Rise of the Triad, and I commend them for it. It’s not necessarily a game I’ll ever be good at, or a game I’d typically play these days, but I love it anyway.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
While the government may continue to say that the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act remains untouched, it’s the government’s reading of that law which is problematic, especially as it is around an issue which concerns every Indian: as an energy consumer, a taxpayer, and a potential victim of a nuclear accident In an unusual move this week, the government sought to clear the air over the India-U.S. nuclear “breakthrough understanding” announced by U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a detailed press release on the subject. The move was prompted by several questions being asked over how the two leaders had been able to announce a breakthrough in issues that have held up nuclear trade for five years. The bottom line, the government said, was that the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act of 2010 remained untouched. However, it is the government’s reading of that law that is problematic, especially as it concerns an issue which touches the life of every Indian: as an energy consumer, a taxpayer, and a potential victim of any untoward nuclear accident. The energy basket Let’s be clear. The problem is not with the India-U.S. civil nuclear deal. After all, nuclear energy is something India has made a conscious move towards since 2000 in a bipartisan manner, with both the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance governments pushing ahead with it. By 2035, India’s projected energy demand is expected to grow by 132 per cent and India will surpass China as the world’s highest energy consumer according to the latest BP energy outlook report. Given India’s projected population growth, and the worldwide push for clean energy, it is clear that nuclear energy, with its low carbon content, and centralised land requirement, will form a key component of our energy mix. As a result, just last month, the government has tripled its target to 63,000 MW of nuclear energy by 2032, more than 14 times what is produced today. The problem is also not about making special concessions to the United States. If it hadn’t been for the American administration led by President Bush, India would have had few options to build its nuclear energy programme, and access fuel and nuclear supplies from other countries. After the U.S. did the “heavy lifting” in getting India a legitimate place in the international nuclear regime, it would seem churlish to suggest that India should cut out U.S. businesses like GE and Westinghouse from the market simply because they demand more favourable terms than Russian or French ones do. While the prospect of better relations that the nuclear breakthrough will engender between New Delhi and Washington is indeed a worthy cause, its worth must be weighed against the cost. In essence, in order to assuage U.S. supplier concerns over Indian liability laws, the agreement will end up being billed to the consumer multiple times, and ensure that the supplier pays virtually nothing at all. Liability and cost To understand this conclusion, one must break up the “breakthrough understanding” Mr. Obama referred to, into two silos: liability and cost. At every stage of the nuclear process, the government has negotiated to minimise the liability of the supplier (who could be U.S., foreign or Indian). To begin with, the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act of 2010 itself capped all liability to 300 million Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) ($420 million or Rs.2,610 crore). The figure was arrived at in 2010 after much debate, but it would have been far higher today, given two events that followed. “The answers to frequently asked questions supplied by the Ministry of External Affairs seem to be deliberately aimed at easing the concerns of the suppliers, and not the concerned Indian consumer ” First, in March 2011, a tsunami off the coast of Japan led to a technical fault and a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactor plant. To date, nobody knows just how many people were affected by the leak, as officials didn’t categorise the casualties by “cause of death or injury” as that would affect the immediate compensation they received. In 2014, various estimates put the damages and clean-up between $100-$250 billion. Second, in September 2011, the U.S. government’s joint investigation team on the BP “Deepwater Horizon” oil spill off the coast of Mexico found that not only was the “operator” BP liable for the damages, but also Halliburton, that carried out the construction of a faulty well, and Cameron, the company that designed and manufactured a “blowout preventor stack”, that had malfunctioned. The investigation team’s report in 2011 was path-breaking and got the supplier, Cameron, to pay a settlement of $250 million. Given the experiences of the costs of a nuclear accident in today’s times, and how much liability every part of the process chain must bear internationally, Parliament and the Indian government may have revised the proposed cap to a much higher figure than the $420 million it is and made the CLND Act more stringent than it did then. In the unthinkable event of a nuclear blowout, it will be near impossible to get close enough to the melted core of a reactor to ever know just who was responsible for it; so the fault of the supplier will also be much more difficult to prove than in the BP case. More questions than answers It is curious, then, that after the last round of negotiations, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has put out an explanation that only seeks to reduce the liability that suppliers will face. The answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) supplied by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) seem to be deliberately aimed at easing the concerns of the suppliers, and not the concerned Indian consumer. Under its explanation of section 17 (question 9), for example, it says the law “permits but doesn’t require an operator” to make the supplier liable in its contract for a nuclear reactor or part. It also says that a supplier can be sued for damages only “if it is expressly provided for in a contract in writing.” (question 8). What supplier would feel obligated under the circumstances to sign for liability in a contract, when it isn’t “mandatory” according to the government of the day? While the FAQ mentions that the state-run operator, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd., “would” insist on such a clause, it doesn’t answer this basic question. Nor does it answer what would happen in case the nuclear industry is privatised and the operator is no longer a state-owned entity. Next, the MEA release does away with the right of recourse of a victim to sue the supplier in India directly (question 7) as well as in a “class action suit” in foreign courts (question 13) where it says that section 46 on tort law “does not create the grounds for victims to move foreign courts.” All of this is done under the cloak of conforming to the International Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC 1997), but it doesn’t explain why the government is going to such great lengths to exclude the supplier for a law that had been debated so hard in the Indian Parliament only so that it would include the supplier. The contrast between Arun Jaitley’s article of September 2013, as Opposition leader, where he referred to the “hidden hand of nuclear vendors” and insisted on making liability for the vendor or supplier “mandatory” and just 15 months later, when as Union Finance Minister, he was a key part of the nuclear contact group meeting that hammered out this agreement, could not be more distinct. Mounting costs Finally, we come to the cost of the breakthrough to the Indian consumer/potential victim. As a sweetener for suppliers, the MEA has spelt out a “nuclear insurance pool” for the Rs.1,500 crore that is the minimum required (questions 14 & 15) to be set aside by law. Curiously, while one tier of the pool will cater to operators, tiers 2 and 3 are meant for the same suppliers who have largely been insulated from any liability. The pool will be made up by the government and state-owned insurers administered by the General Insurance Corporation of India. In the unfortunate event of any incident, this pool would be used to pay damages immediately to the victims, the government would be liable for an additional Rs.1,110 crore, and after which the International CSC fund would bear residual damages (applicable only once India ratifies the CSC). The supplier, it is made amply clear, will pay nothing but a nominal premium to the insurance pool, which no doubt will build into the cost of supplies. To make it simple, the Indian consumer/taxpayer will pay for the following: the cost of land allotted to the nuclear reactor, the costs of building and operationalising the reactor, the cost of the insurance pool run by state-owned companies, the costs of half the pool that the Central government will provide, the cost of electricity per unit (expected to be at least double that of existing reactors), the immediate damages disbursed by the insurance fund in the terrible event of an accident, the subsequent damages paid for by the Central government, and not to mention the legal costs if the government or operator decides to sue the supplier! Confusing the consumer The real problem, then, is that nothing is “simply put” in the nuclear debate. Instead, clever, complicated and arcane language has been used to obviate the real meaning and obfuscate its consequences for the consumer. Such simplicity may also explain how the same set of Indian officials, negotiating with the same U.S. administration for more than five years over the same law, were able to produce a new and unique consequence, now being called the “breakthrough” in the nuclear deal. [email protected]	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
My new book will make you laugh. Git one! Click. by James Howard Kunstler Like entropy, the diminishing returns of technology never sleep. The hubristic techno-narcissism of the day, as seen in mankind’s efforts to fake-out the universe, will eventually get our one-way ticket to Palookaville punched. Perhaps there’s such a thing as being too cool after all. The trick so far has been to create massive inflation, export the effects of it to other trading partners, and end up with a lot more money here in the USA, or the illusion of more money. Well, loans, for houses, cars, and college tuitions. In a word: debt. Let’s call it “Rainman Economics,” because it begins to resemble the behavior of a severely autistic human being who performs a small range of obsessive actions over and over and over, often centered on numbers. Rainman Economics is the policy of the Federal Reserve and, indirectly, the government under Mr. Obama. The suave and genial Mr. Obama just doesn’t know what’s going on — despite being surrounded by minions with briefing folders, sages and vizeers, quantitative augurers neck-deep in mathematical goat entrails, and (always) the lone, silent soldier toting the dire nuclear “football.” Mr. Obama doesn’t know that the universe has launched us on a journey to a place beyond techno-industrialism — and it’s not Ray Kurzweil’s infinity of orgasms. It’s a place where no ring-tones are heard and not so much as a stretch-mark of the Kardashians remains to be found. This is the eeriest summer. The coordinated effort to devalue gold — so as to maintain the sagging reputation of the world’s re$erve currency — has had the effect mainly of funneling it out of weak hands in the west to strong hands in the east, to countries that at one time or another we regarded as adversaries. China and Russia have been backing up their respective trucks at the gold warehouse loading dock, and before too long they will have yuan and rubles with more credibility than the US dollar. In these games of currency war, there are too many moving parts for comfort. Paradoxically, the American position is all about maintaining undeserved comfort, that is a standard of living that is no longer earned but borrowed from the darkest pool of magic capital: the future of declining expectations. Enjoy the flat screen TVs, water-parks, RVs, and Happy Meals while you can. There is sand in the gears of the moving parts that have made all that possible. It’s quite a trick to debase your currency for strategic advantage and at the same time maintain the world’s credibility in it. The strategic advantage is that debasement allows you to dissipate existing debt by stealth. But that trick is not working too well at the moment in the USA because too many other players are trying the same thing, and doing it badly, so people in foreign lands are dumping their currencies to take refuge in the dollar. The chief product of all this motion is not “prosperity” but instability. That is the last thing that economies need, even if the gamesters in the financial markets can arbitrage it to their advantage. Instability translates into uncertainty, especially about the relative value of currencies. For the moment, holders of weakening currencies are seeking refuge in seemingly “stronger” dollars in bubbling equity markets. Many more dollars have been stashed on the balance sheets of the Federal Reserve in the form of bonds purchased in galumphing bales since 2009 — only the catch is that many of these bonds are worthless, especially the mortgage-backed securities. The collateral exists in the form of mold-infused sheetrock, swimming pools with algae blooms, and strip malls left with a single tenant: the wig shop. The Fed will never be able to unload this hoard of garbage, even if it “tapers” its buying of new garbage. The dollars that the Fed creates out of nothing are trapped in this fetid backwater of rotting capital, destined to go nowhere — surely not into activity that produces real wealth, or the means to continue being civilized. Something’s in the air this hot, soggy summer and it smells like the loss of faith. In another month, as the nights grow cool we’ll approach the sober season of fall, when the air seems to possess powers of magnification and suddenly things can be seen clearly. The high frequency robo trading bots are good at detecting microscopic differences in digital quant pools, but they don’t have the finer sensory antennae of human brains for forces outside the rather narrow math narrative. For instance, I communed with my fellow citizens this Fourth of July weekend for a few hours at a little beach in a Vermont state park. It was a family kind of place. The mommies and daddies were putting on a competitive tattoo display (along with competitive eating). So many skulls, Devil heads, snakes, screaming eagles, flags, and thunderbolts. I suppose they acquire these totem images to ward off some apprehended greater harm, the metaphysically inchoate forces marshalling at the margins of what little normal life remains in this nation of rackets, swindles, and tears. All was nonetheless tranquility, there by the little lakeside, with the weenies grilling and the pop-tops popping. A three-year-old came by where I was working on my tan on a towel in the grass, supine. He asked me if I was dead. Not yet, I told him. Behind him a skull smoking a doobie loomed in blue and red ink on his daddy’s thigh. My people. My country. __________________ We have a new procedure for commenting on this blog in the interest of moderating the circus of trolldom that has reigned here over the years. You have to sign in now. Intelligent discourse welcomed.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Israel Navarro Oaxaca, Chiapas y Guerrero, estados del sur del país, tienen el mayor porcentaje de población económicamente activa que se dedica a la informalidad: 80 por ciento los dos primeros y 79 por ciento el tercero, de acuerdo con un estudio elaborado por la Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (Coparmex). Según el reporte estatal sobre salarios mínimos, tanto en la economía formal como en la informal, incluido en el estudio Hacia una política integral para elevar el ingreso de las familias, les siguen Michoacán, Puebla y Tlaxcala, con 73%; Hidalgo, con 72%, y Veracruz, con 69%. En contraste, Nuevo León tiene alta formalidad entre su población económicamente activa, donde 63 por ciento pertenece a este sector y 66 por ciento obtiene de dos a cinco salarios mínimos al día. En lo más alto de la medición de trabajadores formales también están Coahuila y Chihuahua, con 63 por ciento; Baja California, con 61 por ciento, y Baja California Sur, con 58 por ciento. El análisis toma como referencia cifras de la Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo (ENOE), del Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo (CIDAC) y del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (Inegi), y detalla que en las entidades donde tiene amplio control la Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) como las perredistas Oaxaca y Guerrero, la priista Michoacán y la verdeecologista Chiapas existe mayor informalidad y bajas percepciones económicas. En el caso de Oaxaca, 80 por ciento de su población económicamente activa está en el sector informal. Aproximadamente siete de cada 10 obtienen ingresos equivalentes a dos salarios mínimos. Es considerado pobre 61.9 por ciento de sus gobernados y 23.3 por ciento en situación extrema. Caso similar presenta Chiapas, donde 80 por ciento de su población percibe ingresos de la informalidad y uno de cada dos solo recibe un salario mínimo. En la entidad, 74.7 por ciento de su población está considerada en el rango de pobreza y de éstos 32.2 por ciento vive en el nivel extremo. Dentro del ranking, Guerrero presenta 79 por ciento de los trabajadores en el sector informal y 66 por ciento capta hasta dos salarios mínimos diariamente. Aquí los índices de pobreza son más graves, toda vez que tres de cada 10 guerrerenses son pobres, y agrega que 31.7 por ciento es considerado en extrema pobreza. En Michoacán, donde la educación es controlada por la disidencia magisterial, 73 por ciento de los trabajadores se dedican a la informalidad y 62 por ciento apenas obtiene dos salarios mínimos. La situación de pobreza también es sobresaliente: 54.4 por ciento la padece y 14.4 por ciento está en el rango de extrema. En la Ciudad de México, uno de cada dos trabajadores obtiene sus ingresos en la informalidad. De éstos, 57 por ciento gana de uno a dos salarios mínimos, añade el documento, que también revela que en el DF 28 por ciento de las personas viven en pobreza y 2.5 por ciento en pobreza extrema. En el caso de Morelos, 66 por ciento de la población económicamente activa obtiene sus ingresos en la informalidad. El 55 por ciento de los morelenses obtiene al día hasta dos ingresos mínimos, señala el documento, que refiere además que 45.5 por ciento de las personas vive en pobreza y 6.3% en condición extrema. En tanto, Tabasco tiene a 63 por ciento de su población con ingresos en la informalidad y 36 por ciento percibe hasta dos salarios mínimos. A esto se le suma que uno de cada dos tabasqueños vive en pobreza (49 por ciento) y 14.3 por ciento en pobreza extrema. También se detecta fuerte presencia del problema de la informalidad en Nayarit (64%), Zacatecas (64%), Yucatán (63%), Campeche (61%), Guanajuato (60%), San Luis Potosí (59%), Estado de México (58%), Durango (57%), Colima (54%), Jalisco (53%) y Sinaloa (51%). En resumen, la informalidad tiene fuerte presencia en 12 entidades gobernadas por el PRI, cinco por el PRD y tres por el PAN. SEIS MILLONES, CON $67 AL DÍA Coparmex concluyó que durante el primer trimestre de 2014, la Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo reportó que 6 millones 462 mil 570 personas ganan hasta un salario mínimo, equivalente a 13 por ciento de la población ocupada total del país. 93 por ciento (6 millones 42 mil personas) se concentra en el sector informal. “Esta es una de las realidades más sensibles del mercado laboral en México: la precarización de la economía informal”. Explica que las economías estatales más productivas tienen menores tasas de informalidad y por lo tanto, mejores niveles de ingreso salarial promedio. “Una política que busque subir el salario mínimo sin una estrategia clara para abatir la informalidad, no puede ser una solución integral”. Al contrario, por la propia naturaleza del sector informal en el que es casi imposible cualquier tipo de fiscalización, un aumento en el salario mínimo “corre el riesgo de no tener efectos pero sí introducir distorsiones importantes en otros sectores”, puntualizó.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Washington, DC: US President Donald Trump on Sunday upbraided the father of one of three UCLA basketball players who were detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting after he questioned Trump's role in their release. "Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!," Trump wrote in a Twitter post. The three players from the University of California, Los Angeles apologised last week and thanked Trump for helping secure their release by raising the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit. But LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo Ball, on Saturday downplayed Trump's involvement in the release.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Denver Zoo welcomed the birth of two Red Pandas on June 6. The female cubs, named Lali and Masu, are currently in a nesting box and are being cared for by their mother, Faith. On rare occasion, Zoo guests may see the mother bring the cubs outside the nesting box. However, the cubs will remain mostly behind the scenes until September, when they’re more developed and ready to fully join their father, Hamlet, in the Red Panda exhibit. Zookeepers are keeping a close eye on Lali and Masu; Zoo veterinarians perform regular exams to check weight, temperature and overall wellness. In their first weeks of life, the cubs were not gaining weight or regulating their body temperatures. Both were diagnosed with pneumonia and started on daily tube feedings, antibiotics and fluids. They slowly began gaining weight and recovering, and are now off of treatment and doing well under the care of their mother. Recently they began opening their eyes but, as newborns do, they sleep most of the day and night. This is a first litter for both parents. Faith, the mother, was born in June 2014, and dad, Hamlet, was born July 2013. Faith made her way to Denver from Trevor Park Zoo, and Hamlet arrived from Toronto Zoo, last year, under breeding recommendation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan. Photo Credits: Denver Zoo In the wild, the Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) inhabits the Himalayan mountains of China, India and Nepal, where they are threatened by habitat destruction and hunting. They are currently classified as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The Red Panda communicates with squeaks, chattering noises and chipmunk-like sounds. Although it shares the same name, the Red Panda is not related to the Giant Panda. In fact, the Red Panda is not related to any other animals, making it unique. As with the Giant Panda, female Red Pandas are only fertile for just one day a year and can delay implantation until conditions are favorable. They give birth to between one and four young at a time, and the cubs are born with pale fluffy fur, which darkens to the distinctive red coloration of the adults over the first three months. Red Pandas, like Giant Pandas, have very specialized diet requirements and eat a large amount of bamboo daily. Red Pandas are part of the Global Species Management Plan (GSMP) in zoos around the world. GSMP is allied with field conservation efforts for animals around the world.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
DARMSTADT, Germany — Four homeschooled children who were seized by German officials earlier this year are now attending government schools after their parents agreed to the condition in order to have them returned home. As previously reported, approximately 20 social workers, police officers and special agents swarmed the home of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich in August and forcefully removed all their children. A family court judge in Darmstadt had signed an order that day authorizing officials to immediately seize the Wunderlich’s children for failing to cooperate “with the authorities to send the children to [public] school.” “I looked through a window and saw many people, police, and special agents, all armed,” Dirk outlined. “They told me they wanted to come in to speak with me. I tried to ask questions, but within seconds, three police officers brought a battering ram and were about to break the door in, so I opened it.” “The police shoved me into a chair and wouldn’t let me even make a phone call at first,” he continued. “It was chaotic as they told me they had an order to take the children. At my slightest movement the agents would grab me, as if I were a terrorist. You would never expect anything like this to happen in our calm, peaceful village. It was like a scene out of a science fiction movie. Our neighbors and children have been traumatized by this invasion.” In September, following a court hearing about the matter, the Wunderlich children were returned to their parents after Dirk and Petra agreed to send them to a state school. Their first day of classes was October 28th. “What other choice did we have?” Dirk stated to the Virginia-based Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). “They had our children. We feel ravaged by the government. We don’t want our children in school but we have no choice—we can’t leave and if we don’t comply they will take our children away. We will make the best of it because we know if we tried to leave, the authorities would separate us and we might never see our children again or for a very long time.” He said that he asked his lawyers to obtain confirmation from social workers that if the family emigrated to a country where homeschooling is legal, they would not interfere. However, the judge overseeing the case told the family that if they left the country before the next hearing in December, he would ensure that they faced criminal sanctions. Connect with Christian News Follow @4christiannews “In the weeks before, it was terrible to think of my children going to school. I’m trying to have a more practical view,” Dirk stated. “We will have a court date in December and hope we can get the full custody back and perhaps be able to go where homeschooling is tolerated. Our lawyers have made emergency requests and we hope perhaps an answer will come sooner. We don’t think we could do this for years, but for a few or more weeks we can. Anyway, we don’t really have any choice.”	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
バチカン高官、複数の性犯罪容疑で訴追画像提供, Getty Images 画像説明, ペル枢機卿は容疑を繰り返し否認してきた。写真は昨年ローマで記者会見した枢機卿ローマ法王庁の財務長官を務めるジョージ・ペル枢機卿（76）が28日、オーストラリアにおける複数の性犯罪容疑で訴追された。枢機卿は同日、法王庁で記者会見し、容疑を強硬に否定した。ビクトリア州警察は、過去の複数事案による訴追だと説明。シェーン・パットン副総監は、複数人の告訴に基づくものだと話した。容疑の詳細は明らかにされていない。パットン副総監は、捜査手続きは他の捜査と一緒で、「ペル枢機卿は本件の捜査において、誰もが受ける通常の扱いを受けた」と説明した。枢機卿は7月18日に、メルボルンの法廷に出廷する必要がある。昨年にはローマで、オーストラリアの捜査員から任意で事情聴取を受けた。財務長官として法王庁3番目の地位にあるペル枢機卿は、法王庁で会見し、「虚偽」の告訴にもとづく2年間の捜査で「絶え間ない人格攻撃」を受けたと反論。身の潔白を証明するため、法王庁での職務からの猶予をフランシスコ法王に認められたと話した。枢機卿は「ついに法廷で自分の主張ができる日を楽しみにしている。私は一連の疑いについて無実だ。疑いは虚偽だ。性的虐待などというそのものを、私は嫌悪している」と強調した。この会見に先立ち、法王庁は28日、「ペル枢機卿はできる限り速やかにオーストラリアへ戻り、潔白を証明する。渡航にあたっては、主治医の助言と許可に従うことになる」と声明を出し、「枢機卿は出廷を心待ちにしており、疑いを強力に否認するつもりだと話している」と説明していた。画像提供, Reuters 画像説明, 今年4月の復活祭のミサで、法王の隣でろうそくを手にするペル枢機卿（4月15日）ペル枢機卿は、カトリックの伝統的な価値観を強力に擁護し、同性結婚や避妊について保守的な立場をとってきた。また、司祭の妻帯禁止も主張してきた。その一方で枢機卿はかねてより、聖職者による児童性的虐待を隠蔽したと非難され続け、後には本人も児童を性的に虐待していたと疑惑が指摘されてた。本人は一貫して、問題行動を強く否定している。枢機卿は2014年、バチカン銀行の資金洗浄疑惑を受けてフランシスコ法王が新設した財務長官のポストに就任した。しかしオーストラリアのカトリック聖職者による児童性的虐待の実態が明らかになっていたのと重なり、オーストラリアでは強い反発を招いた。王立委員会は、豪南東部ビクトリア州のバララット市で起きた児童への性的虐待について調査をしている。1970年代初頭にバララットの神学校にいたジェラルド・リッズデール司祭が小児性愛者だったことが明らかになっているが、ペル氏も同じ場所に居住していた。また後にペル枢機卿は、このリッズデール司祭について報告するより、教区を移動させて行為を隠蔽しようとしたとこれまでも避難されていた。また被害者に賄賂を提供して沈黙を買おうとしたとも言われている。豪ABCは2016年、1970年代にペル枢機卿に不適切な形で体を触られたという男性2人の証言を放送した。枢機卿はその内容を強く否定し、「とんでもない人格攻撃キャンペーンだ」と反発していた。＜解説＞ヒュエル・グリフィス・オーストラリア特派員、BBCニュース画像提供, Getty Images ペル枢機卿はオーストラリア最高位のカトリック聖職者というだけでなく、カトリック世界全体でも極めて高い地位にいる。ここ20年来、同性愛やエイズ、胚性幹細胞研究などカトリックの教義上異論の多い課題について、教会の議論を主導してきた。また豪カトリック教会の聖職者による性的虐待疑惑について、教会側の公式対応の中心的な存在だった。オーストラリアで児童性的虐待を調査する王立委員会に昨年ビデオ中継で証言した際には、傍聴するためローマにまで行った被害者もいた。それだけに、そのペル枢機卿自身を性犯罪の疑いで訴追するという判断の重要性は、強調しすぎるということはない。	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
L'adoption du projet de loi sur l'aide médicale à mourir devra attendre, quoi qu'en pense le gouvernement péquiste. L'urgence invoquée par le gouvernement Marois pour adopter le projet de loi 52 avant la relâche parlementaire de deux semaines n'a pas fait fléchir l'opposition officielle. Le chef libéral Philippe Couillard a refusé net de restreindre le temps de parole de ses députés, appelés à voter librement pour ou contre la pièce législative selon leur conscience. Le leader parlementaire du gouvernement, Stéphane Bédard, a aussitôt accusé le leader libéral d'être incapable d'assumer son leadership et de ne pas être à la hauteur de sa tâche. «Son manque de leadership va faire en sorte qu'on va retarder l'adoption du plus important projet de loi de l'actuelle législation et on va le reporter dans le temps dans un calendrier sur lequel on ne peut pas prédire son atterrissage à court terme», a pesté M. Bédard, affichant un air sombre en point de presse. «Pour le parlement, c'est ce que j'ai vu de plus décevant de toute ma carrière», a-t-il poursuivi. M. Bébard assure qu'il était pourtant prêt accommoder les libéraux pour leur laisser le temps d'intervenir comme ils le souhaitent dans le débat. «Une démarche de quatre ans va être reportée parce qu'il manquerait une heure, une heure et demie ou deux heures à l'agenda parlementaire? Je peux lui en donner quatre des heures de plus. La CAQ est d'accord, Québec solidaire est d'accord, tout ce qui manque, c'est le consentement de Philippe Couillard qui est incapable de convaincre ses troupes», a soutenu le député de Chicoutimi. Des tractations de coulisses avaient permis quelques heures plus tôt de trouver un terrain d'entente avec la Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) et Québec solidaire (QS) afin d'accélérer le pas et adopter le projet de loi jeudi au jour même du dépôt du budget. Les libéraux sont toutefois restés campés sur leur position: pas question de bousculer le calendrier pour se conformer à l'agenda électoral de la première ministre Pauline Marois, a expliqué M. Couillard. «C'est une manoeuvre bassement partisane et électoraliste du Parti québécois et on ne tombera pas dans ce panneau-là, a-t-il fait valoir pour justifier son refus de collaborer avec le gouvernement. Ce qui rend le projet de loi politique et partisan, c'est la décision de Mme Marois de faire des élections. Sinon, il n'y a pas de problème, le projet de loi chemine et est adopté.» Depuis quelques jours, le gouvernement péquiste fait pression sur les partis d'opposition pour adopter le projet de loi avant la relâche sous prétexte que le débat sur le budget accaparera les travaux au retour de la pause dans deux semaines. Comme il est probable que le gouvernement minoritaire choisisse de déclencher des élections avant le vote sur le budget, l'aide médicale a mourir risque de prendre la voie de garage. Le chef libéral s'est cependant engagé à ramener le projet de loi «dans sa forme actuelle» s'il est porté au pouvoir. D'ici là, le PLQ défendra bec et ongles le droit d'expression de ses députés, a insisté M. Couillard. «Jamais je n'accepterais de limiter le droit de parole des députés du caucus libéral. On a décidé de tenir un vote de conscience, chacun et chacun des députés veut se lever pour expliquer à ses commettants pourquoi il vote pour ou contre ce projet de loi. On ne voit pas ça souvent au Québec, c'est la première fois qu'on voit ça au Québec un vote de conscience sur un sujet aussi important», a-t-il dit. Pas moins de 30 députés libéraux ont exprimé leur volonté de prendre la parole en Chambre au sujet du projet de loi 52. Le chef du PLQ a informé Mme Marois qu'il était disposé à poursuivre le processus d'adoption le 11 mars, avant le débat sur le budget. Personnellement en faveur du projet de loi, M. Couillard croit néanmoins qu'il n'y a pas lieu de précipiter l'ordre des choses. «Il ne faut pas tomber dans le panneau de la fausse urgence et de transformer ce projet non partisan et crucial pour notre société en ballon de football politique. Je regrette, le singe n'est pas sur notre épaule, il devrait être sur l'épaule du gouvernement qui, de par sa décision de lancer le Québec en élection, décide d'utiliser cet enjeu pour des fins partisanes. C'est ça qui est inacceptable», a-t-il soulevé.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The newest small-batch beer from Dogfish Head, released Sunday to celebrate the fall equinox, is out of this world. Celest-jewel-ale is made with lunar meteorites that have been crushed into dust, then steeped like tea in a rich, malty Oktoberfest. These certified moon jewels are made up primarily of minerals and salts, helping the yeast-induced fermentation process and lending this traditional German style a subtle but complex earthiness. (Or is it mooniness?) Teams from Dogfish and ILC Dover toast Celest-jewel-ale. Our friends up the road at ILC Dover, a company that creates space suits for NASA, helped us get this unique and incredibly rare ingredient. We also used German malts and hops, and fermented this beer with our house Doggie yeast, giving Celest-jewel-ale notes of doughy malt, toasted bread, subtle caramel and a light herbal bitterness. Exclusively served at Dogfish Head’s Rehoboth Beach brewpub, Celest-jewel-ale marks the September night of the harvest moon – the full moon closest to the fall equinox – whose brightness has traditionally helped farmers work into the evening. Moon dust, meet beer. On top of the lunar meteorites, ILC is making sure this is the best-protected beer on the planet with can coolers made from the same material as their space suits. The outer layer is Orthofabric, which is specially woven to have white Gore-Tex® PTFE on the exterior and Nomex® with a Kevlar® ripstop on the interior. The Gore-Tex is slippery to prevent friction between parts of the suit during movement and facilitate mobility. Its color also limits the absorption of solar energy. The Nomex is for fire protection, and the Kevlar prevents tearing. The aluminized Mylar® insulation layers inside the can cooler maintain a comfortable thermal environment. In space, they reflect the sun’s energy out when in sunlight and the astronaut’s body heat in the suit when in shade. The foam inside the can cooler is polyurethane, and in its day job provides a comfortable interface between the astronaut and the space suit in padding. The inner layer is polyester, which is the layer of the space suit that provides structural integrity and mobility joints when pressurized. All the materials in the can cooler can withstand the rigors of space including temperatures ranging from +250/-250F, micrometeoroid traveling at 10 miles per second, solar radiation and the vacuum of space. Just as these materials surround astronauts and keep them at the optimal temperature, they will do the same for beverages. Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione is ready for blastoff. We have 10 of these space-age can coolers, and they’re a little more valuable than your average foam jobbie, so you’ll have to hand over your license and drink your Celest-jewel-ale at the bar. We’ve gotta keep these beauties grounded! Celest-jewel-ale, at 5% ABV and 25 IBUs, is available now at Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats. But if you want a taste, make haste. When it’s gone, it’s outta this world forever! About ILC Dover: Since 1947, ILC Dover has been active in the design and development of products for both government and industry. Most ILC products are comprised of softgoods materials – products that are flexible by nature and result in innovative solutions to customer problems. On Friday, Sept. 20, ILC Dover was presented with an award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designating the Apollo space suit as a “Historical Mechanical Engineering Landmark.” The Apollo space suit was developed and produced by ILC between 1962 and 1974 and allowed 12 men to successfully walk on the moon. One giant leap for beer-kind.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Episode #16 of our podcast included a quick audio-recipe for Mexican pickled onions. I figured I’d document it here as well since I don’t want to give you any excuses for not having a jar of this stuff in your fridge at all times. It’s super quick and tasty. Ingredients 1 large red onion, peeled 1 clove garlic, peeled 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup water ~10 black peppercorns 2 cloves 1” cinnamon stick 1 small bay leaf 1 chile de arbol, whole 3 tbsp sugar 1 tsp salt Directions Cut the onion in half, then slice it 1/4” thick. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring near a boil, then immediately remove from heat. Pour into a wide-mouth jar. Leave on a cooling rack until it’s down to room temperature, then put the lid on and refrigerate. They’ll be ready to eat in 30 minutes, but they’re best after a day or two. They’ll keep for at least a month, after which they may go a bit limp. Enjoy on tacos, or with any savory, salty food in need of some acidic brightening. Notes This calls for whole spices instead of ground, as is always the case with pickling. Ground spices will make your pickle brine muddy and gritty. This should fill a 24 oz jar, the kind pickles often come in. If your liquid doesn’t cover the onion completely, add a bit more water and vinegar. Feel free to experiment with herbs and spices. This is my favorite combination, but you can do anything from skipping all of them to also adding star anise and oregano. Let your tastebuds guide you.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
There was a laugh-out-loud moment Tuesday morning as Joe Biden made his presidential pitch on ABC's "Good Morning America." (Actually, there were several knee-slappers, but I'm trying to restrain myself here.) When asked if he had a theme like President Trump's "Make America Great Again," Biden replied, "Make America moral again." "Make America return to the essence of who we are," Biden continued. "The dignity of the country. The dignity in people and treating our people with dignity and this God-awful deliberate division is being taken in order to separate people, to aggrandize his own power." CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM LAURA INGRAHAM. Joe Biden is going to make us moral again? Now, is this the same Joe Biden who was driven out of the race for the presidency years ago amid charges of plagiarism? Or is this the same Catholic Joe who has evolved away from the core teaching of his faith. Remember, Joe was once pro-life and even voted for partial birth abortion bans in 1997 and 2003. But only when that ban was upheld in 2007 by the Supreme Court, Catholic Joe evolved a bit. Several bishops have denied Biden Communion in their diocese due to his rabid abortion advocacy. And now he's lecturing us on morality. And what does Biden even mean by his morality? In his interview with ABC, he referred to it as, "The dignity of the country, the dignity in people -- treating our people with dignity. More respect and dignity than they did before. This is about restoring dignity. The dignity of work." CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ENTIRE EPISODE. "Dignity"? Let's face it. Biden's kind of a fun person if you say hi to him. I'm sure he's a nice guy. But at age 76, he is coming across as just kind of a rambling, doddering, less cool version of Obama. And we know how much dignity Obama believed those working-class Americans deserved. Remember when Obama referred to them as embittered people who cling to their guns and religion? Now we're supposed to believe that those bitter clinger's are going to look to Rambling Joe to return their dignity? I don't know ... I'm not feeling that most Americans look to the government to deliver their morality or their dignity. I think most people just want to be left alone to live their lives in peace and maybe have a few extra bucks in their pocket. The argument Biden's basically trying to make here is I'm nicer than mean old Trump, so vote for me. I think you could call this the "Mayor Pete effect." Biden saw Pete Buttigieg mouthing religious platitudes, while advocating some pretty radical policies, and he probably thought, "Hey I can literally do that better than he can." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP. But the truth is this is a candidate in a party that is in kind of a tough spot here. Politico reported this the other day, saying, "Dems sweat Trump's economy: We don't really have a robust national message right now." Oh, you think? And if you listen carefully, the 2020 Democrats aren't making the case that their ideas are going to grow the economy faster than Trump or lead to bigger wage increases or even lower unemployment numbers than Trump's numbers. Instead they become the self-appointed, self-anointed leaders of a new liberal, moral majority. Well, speaking of moral amnesia, the Democrats have forgotten what they've shown America lately. After spending two years defaming President Trump, calling him a traitor, Democrats were proven wrong in the Mueller report about collusion. And yet they refuse to even apologize. How is that moral? And on the issue of illegal immigration, come on. Democrats are lying to the American people about a full-blown crisis at our southern border. Pelosi and company aren't going to work with Trump on the issue just because of politics. How is that moral? The argument Joe Biden's basically trying to make here is I'm nicer than mean old Trump, so vote for me. I think you could call this the 'Mayor Pete effect.' On the state and local level, things aren't pretty, either, for Joe Biden's "We're more moral than Trump" party. Where are all the morally superior Democrats calling for the resignation of Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx, who allowed actor, hate crime hoaxer, and artist Jussie Smollett to walk free. Or how about liberal Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is on the brink of resignation amid state and federal investigations over financial dealings. I must have missed Joe's comments on her. And morality is just busting out all over at the Virginia statehouse, where the Democrats have both a sitting governor and attorney general with blackface problems. Oh and let's not forget Mr. Morality himself, the Democrat Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, who is accused of sexual assault by two women. In the immediate aftermath of these stories, some Democrats did urge the Virginia officials to step aside. But notice how quiet it's gotten lately. If it had been a Republican or any Republican official accused of similar offenses, Democrats would not have rested until those men were driven out of office. But clearly the Democrats like Joe. Bitter about Trump's roaring economy, they're desperate and they're clinging to their morality narrative. But there's another problem. They've also become the party of infanticide. It was Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist, who, while not in blackface, explained the grisly process of third-trimester abortion that he sought to expand under his state laws. Then days later, the New York Assembly passed a bill legalizing infanticide and decriminalizing late-term abortions. The reaction was a standing ovation. That, my friends, is a moral standing ovation. These people are the moral exemplars of the 21st century? Are you kidding me? Democrats ought to get off their moral high horses or they're going to get bucked right off. For it is immoral to condemn and judge a man who, like all of us, is flawed, but who gave up a really cushy life to fight hard every day for prosperity and security for all Americans. President Trump's done more for the cause of life than any president in my lifetime -- and I worked for Ronald Reagan. This record of Trump's is stunning, even with all the wrenches that the Democrats have tried to jam into his spokes. So pull the numerous planks out of your own eye, Joe, before you start condemning others as immoral for political gain. Adapted from Laura Ingraham's monologue from "The Ingraham Angle" on April 30, 2019.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
11. DRAG ALL items across by their order of importance. 1 = MOST important, 4 = LEAST important Order the items from the following list. First select an item with the spacebar to show a menu of possible ranking positions. Next, click a ranking position to order it in the ranked list. Note the menu will display more ordering options as you add items to the ranked list.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
In 1994, Brian Lara surpassed Hanif Mohammad's 499 Graham Chadwick / © PA Photos 1994 Brian Lara achieved immortality with the highest score in first-class cricket history: 501 not out. As if his Test-record 375 wasn't enough, Lara took the first-class record within two months when he surpassed Hanif Mohammad's 499 while playing for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston. He had a few near-misses - Lara was bowled off a no-ball on 12 and then was dropped by wicketkeeper Chris Scott on 18 (Scott apparently said: "Oh dear, he'll probably go on and get a hundred"). In all, Lara faced only 427 deliveries, and hammered 62 fours and ten sixes. On the final day he whacked 174 runs before lunch. For good measure, he also became the first man to make seven hundreds in eight first-class innings, the first of which was the 375. He lost his Test record briefly to Matthew Hayden in 2003 but took it back in April 2004 with 400 against England in Antigua. 1957 The career of Mike Gatting, who was born today, was split into three distinct segments. He struggled at first, taking seven years and 54 innings to make his first Test century. But after breaking that duck with 136 in Mumbai in 1984-85, Gatting went on a storming two-year run in which he made nine centuries in 28 Tests and averaged 63. Then came Shakoor Rana, and an alleged liaison with a barmaid that cost him the England captaincy in 1988. Gatting was never the same - he captained the rebel tour to South Africa in 1989, and in 51 Tests either side of his outstanding two-year run of form, he only made one century, a tortuous 117 in Adelaide in 1994-95 as the curtain came gently down on his career. 1943 One of Pakistan's finest batsmen is born... in Hyderabad, India. Asif Iqbal came a long way from the 21-year-old who opened the bowling - with his fellow debutant and future batting star Majid Khan - and batted No. 10, against Australia in Karachi in 1964-65. In full flow Asif was a sumptuous sight. He made his first Test century from No. 9, 146 against England at The Oval in 1967, but he eventually graduated into the middle order, where his dashing, fleet-footed strokeplay charmed everyone, not least during a successful stint in county cricket with Kent. 1988 Birth of India batsman Ajinkya Rahane. He made up for a forgettable debut against Australia in 2013 by establishing himself as one of India's most valuable overseas batsmen, averaging close to 55 abroad for a four-year period starting late in 2013, and filling the middle-order vacancy left by VVS Laxman's retirement. So it was surprising when captain Virat Kohli chose to play him in only one of three Tests in South Africa in 2018. In any case, in that Test in Johannesburg, Rahane made an important 48 on a challenging pitch with uneven bounce, taking blows to his body, along with Kohli, and helped India win a rare Test outside the subcontinent. His form fell away somewhat after that - he only managed four fifties on the tours of England and Australia that followed. 1991 After all the fuss, 25-year-old Graeme Hick finally made his England Test debut against West Indies at Headingley. Most pundits had already booked him in for 100 Tests, 8000 runs and an average of 50, but it didn't quite work out like that. In fairness, it was an unforgiving baptism - Curtly Ambrose tortured him all summer, dismissing him six times in a row, but it was Courtney Walsh who ended his first innings when Hick fenced to Jeffrey Dujon, having made just 6. 1930 A typhoon is born. In terms of raw, unbridled pace, few bowlers in history can match England's Frank Tyson. Richie Benaud rated him the quickest he ever saw. In 17 Tests, Tyson took 76 wickets at an average of 18. This was no brainless quickie, however - Tyson was a Durham University graduate, and had a penchant for quoting Shakespeare or Wordsworth to batsmen, something you can't quite imagine Glenn McGrath ever doing. Most famously, Tyson blew away Australia as England retained the Ashes in 1954-55. After starting off with 1 for 160 in defeat in Brisbane, he shortened his run and took ten wickets in Sydney and nine more in Melbourne, when he collected 7 for 27 in the second innings and frightened the life out of the Aussies. Injury plagued his career, though, and he emigrated to Australia, where he became a headmaster for a time, before coaching Victoria. 1982 Birth of Pakistan left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Irfan, who at 7ft 1in is one of the tallest cricketers to have played the game. When a club cricketer, he was spotted by Aaqib Javed and that chance meeting allowed Irfan to give up his job in a plastic pipe factory and dream of playing for Pakistan. He debuted at 28 on the one-day leg of the 2010 England tour, and while injuries interrupted his career at the start, he went on to make a regular place for himself in the limited-overs sides, troubling batsmen with his bounce and speeds of over 140kph. 1994 Brian Lara's 501 overshadowed a routine England victory over New Zealand at Trent Bridge, in a match that ended on the same day. England won by an innings for the first time at home in nine years, thanks mainly to Graham Gooch (210, his last Test hundred), and Phil DeFreitas, who in addition to taking 9 for 165 in the match, made a quick-fire 51 and became the 100th person to take 100 Test wickets. 1940 Birth of the South African allrounder Herbert "Tiger" Lance, who played 13 Tests. He was a handy strokeplayer in the lower middle order, and a useful third- or fourth-change seamer. He took 3 for 30 in his first Test innings, against New Zealand in Johannesburg in 1961-62. His finest hour with the bat also came in Johannesburg, when he made 44 and 70 against Australia in 1966-67, a match that South Africa won at a canter despite trailing on first innings. 1970 Birth of the Indian left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi, whose Test career had one distinct highlight. In Bangladesh's inaugural Test, in Dhaka, Joshi pooped the party with 92, his only Test fifty, and eight wickets, including his only five-for. It set up India's second overseas victory in 14 years. He had one notable one-day performance as well, grabbing 5 for 6 against South Africa in Nairobi in 1999-2000. 1959 Tahir Naqqash, born today, took 34 wickets each in his 15 Tests and 40 ODIs, bowling right-arm fast-medium and offbreaks. But he never bettered his performance in his first Test, in Karachi, where he made his only half-century and took five wickets. Despite a Test career that lasted just three years, Naqqash managed to make tours to Australia, India, England and New Zealand. Other birthdays 1890 Ted Bowley (England) 1909 MJ Gopalan (India) 1917 Prior Jones (West Indies) 1956 Andy Pycroft (Zimbabwe) 1967 Wasim Haider (Pakistan) 1968 Karen Young (Ireland) 1972 Dulip Liyanage (Sri Lanka) 1973 Ashfaq Ahmed (Pakistan) 1980 Dewald Nel (Scotland) © ESPN Sports Media Ltd.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }

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